Report

 It was a windy day that greeted the faithful today but it didn’t spoil what turned out to be quite an eventful game. For a while we thought we were without a recognised keeper but eventually Callum arrived, courtesy of Claires sat nav taking her the scenic route!

Some good early approach play from good passing from Ben, Matthew and Max up to the midfielders saw some early half chances fall to Niall and Morgan. But Whitley looked capable of scoring as their forwards looked to play along the line and score themselves.

After some  trickery from Tom Humble on the right the ball found its way over to the left and out for a throw. Ben took it and put Tom Holborow through down the left side and a truly superb worldclass finish to lob the ball over the keeper opened the scoring for us and the fans began to relax a little.

Better passing saw us take more control of the game and Matthew, Gabs, Tom and Ben looked capable of defending our goal and Callum didn’t have a great deal to do. As we attacked to win a corner, Ben stepped up to take it and plant a peach of a cross for Will to nod home. A fantastic goal that one Will – shame MOTD were there to see it!

At the interval it was 2-0 and we were looking good enough to win the game.

The second half though was a different story as they looked to get forward and get back in to the match. Joe and Max worked hard in the middle to keep them at bay but a goal looked likely after a few close calls and it was 2-1. Whitley looked like they fancied themselves to go on and get another.

Sharpy had other ideas though and soon after the restart got the third to restore the 2 goal lead. But Whitley were determined and kept going and grabbed their second to set up a tense finish.

Then Sharpy was played through again and he rounded the keeper to score and make it 4-2. As the teams met in the middle for the restart, the ref gave probably the latest decision you will ever see and awarded off-side after what looked like prompting from the home fans. Back to 3-2 and the game was anyones.

They could have equalised but for a fab save from Callum to tip over a ball that was goal bound. With minutes to go, a spell of good defending was rather harshly punished as the ball bobbled up and hit Matthews’ hand. The linesman’s flag stayed down but the ref gave the penalty and although Callum went the right way, it was too good and it ended 3-3. The drama wasn't over yet though as Whitley threw everyone forward and we all had to defend. The ball did go over but the ref gave offside and it ended 3-3.

A good game this one spoiled by some strange decisions but that, as they say, is football. We played well and what was pleasing to see was the boys not moan at the decisions but just getting on with the game. Well played.