28th March 2016 - North Shields (h)

Having waited for this fixture with baited breath, it seemed that the closer the day became, the longer the Bay injury list grew. Not many Bay fans held out much hope of anything but avoiding a pounding. We had had our day in September when the lads had worked their socks off to come away from Shields with a 2-1 win.
Not surprisingly the Shields Ultras were in good form with their original versions of contemporary popular terrace songs. The theme of these ditties revolved around hating Whitley and not liking being in Whitley. They didn't have to be here! Their parade of 20 lads through the car park wasn't exactly the numbers they had hoped for when they had planned it.
The reduced novelty of the Coastico meant that the bumper following of the previous year had diminished but it was still good to see a sizable crowd of 900+ descend on Hillheads. (officially 945 compared to 811 in Shields).

The first song in the visiting match reportoire was the old classic "Sing in the library..." This was countered by one of the veteran Bellenders who mused

WSPG will be after

 you, young man!

"How would you know what it is like in a library?"
Also noteworthy was the Shields' keeper McCafferty's insistence on loudly banging his boots on the metal posts: not encouraged in any form of library and certainly not popular with the Bellenders (the WPSG - Whitley Society for Protection of Goalposts). As expected he hadn't had that much to do in the opening moments so he had plenty of time to annoy us. The best bit of abuse to come his way was from our veteran Bellender who told him not to swear because it would be demeaning his "...NE26 roots. You didn't learn that sort of language in Whitley Lodge!" Postcodes were to be a large part of today's banter.
Shields' dominance of the opening exchanges almost earned dividends as a freekick zipped over Flynn's bar and then home hearts were in their mouths when Gibson prevented Shields' Dan Wilson from breaking clear with a scything tackle. An expected red card wasn't shown and the blue part of Hillheads breathed a sigh of relief as a yellow was pulled out. The reds (even though their team was inexplicably wearing white) were not happy.

Ha! take that!

They were even more annoyed when a Fowler cross was expertly flicked into the net by the young head of Andy Robertson. McCafferty hadn't even moved! Served him right for battering our post! No-one could really believe it. Andy had successfully filled in Ash's big boots: holding the ball up with fantastic determination and also showing great skill with both foot and head.

And that!

Chrissy Y, answering the call from his Cricket sabbatical to play, had a good effort saved but a few minutes before half time there was double delight as Robertson held off a defender before rolling the ball under the advancing McCafferty. Woohooo!
Graham Fenton, who many Newcastle fans have never forgiven for scoring two goals for Blackburn that stopped them winning the Premier League in 1996, had a vociferous tirade for his players as he struggled to fathom out how they were losing. It was quite simple: the home team had scored more goals than his.

Mr Grumpy Fenton!

Thinning of the away support!

Despite Shields' triple second half substitutions the Bay held firm and with Richard Flynn in commanding form there were few efforts that bothered Tom Flynn. When he was called into action the goalie Flynnster was equal to it tipping a shot over the bar in expert fashion. Unfortunately the Bay's injury list grew longer as Steve Gibson had to be carried off but the Bay were not to be denied.

You are the future!

 It was noticeable that the vast majority of Shields fans that remained (who were by now enjoying being in a library - probably reading some Mills and Boon romantic novels) were a lot quieter. Their numbers had thinned as the expected victory seemed to be slipping away from their grasp. The highlight of the second half had to be the new generation of Bellenders who have now moved on from singing "Wooooaaaaaawwwww, you're $£%&, aaahhhhh!" to a full compendium that earned them praise indeed from our veteran Bellender.
"C'mon lads...you are THE future!" he crowed. Keep it up they did, with the effervescence of youth, putting us oldies to shame. At first they were attacked by a lone three-year-old Shields fan whose older brother (aged 7) had dared him to do it. After the tot's lone foray, his dad told him off and he had to content himself with shouting "Shut up!" every so often towards the home choir; who hardly noticed him, so intent on their own banter.
Unabated, the youngsters carried on singing their repertoire which included: soon to be favourites
"N....E....25....NE25....!"
"Do you remember September....?"
"Oh, Tom Flynn..." to the tune of the White Stripe's Seven Nation Army.
Although there was consternation that they had started spraying the bottled water over themselves too early as they sang "We're getting wet, we're getting wet. ee I oh adyo....."
However their 'piece de resistance' was yet to come as the remaining away fans drifted off to get the bus back to NE29 leaving great spaces in the Car Park End. The lads edged into the middle of the Shields fans, even past their young rivals, who had taken to sitting forlornly on the steps, and began chanting
"You took your flags down...."
Down came the NE29 flag, the two flags saying Shields and Ultras that had fluttered side by side and the library was quiet again, except for the home youngsters' cries. Just the way we like it!
When the final whistle blew, the moans from the exiting Shields fans grew as they moaned about everything from the referee's bias towards Whitley to the lack of sunshine. Obviously there is usually more sunshine in their NE29 postcode but today the sun shone on the Bay.
The final words should really belong to Shields' Yeti-like Fenton:
"To be honest, the pitch won the day today because they didn't play any sort of football. It's an absolute cowfield out there, the balls are mis-shapen and it probably looks like I'm making excuses but for a club like this to have a pitch and using balls and equipment like this is an absolute disgrace....Standards across the board should be better."
You're right, it does sound like excuses.
Enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxGWKTj6qns

Happy days!