17th January20015: Bishop Auckland (a)

Not having had the joy of attending the 4-1 defeat at Consett in the snow, I was feeling optimism for today's clash with Bishop Aukland. Firstly they were in a similar position to ourselves in the league and secondly it was to be Paddy Atkinson's first home game in charge...with extra excited fans heading to the ground expectantly gearing themselves up for the Paddy-powered revolution.
Least that was in mine and The Boy Mark's minds as we proudly displayed our season tickets at the turnstile. The reality was slightly different as the 256 crowd demonstrated that, once again, Whitley's residents failed to share our excitement.
We did feel optimistic as we walked past the figure who we thought was Paddy leading a pre-match training session before explaining some tactical point to young Alex Kempster. He finished it off with the call that they had a few minutes to themselves to get themselves into the right frame of mind....sounded like sensible advice to us.

Pre-match warm-up and advice for Alex

It was nice to see the return of Craig Smith in the centre of defence but The Boy Mark was disappointed by the lack of a fancy team positioning sheet on the club Facebook and Twitter sites: only a photocopy of the team sheet was not good enough for him!
We had a new face in goal, apparently in from Benfield to give young Dan a rest (according to Doug in the club shop when I bought a new pen because I had forgotten to leave the match pen in my coat pocket. Using a club pen at the match had to have a positive effect, surely. Unfortunately the only concerning thing was that new boy Sean Korsbo was only third choice keeper...maybe Paddy knew something the rest of Benfield didn't.....?
At first it looked like the rest of Benfield knew something that rest of Benfield knew and Paddy didn't as the hapless Sean threw the ball into the path of a Bishops player. He managed to recover and the danger was passed however he was left totally exposed in the seventh minute as Bishops took the lead, a visiting forward bearing down on goal and slotting perfectly past Sean. It was at this point that our friend PT joined us, having earned enough brownie points from looking after his young family to enjoy an afternoon out with the lads. He certainly was pleased he made the effort!
After that Bishops picked up the pace and the Whitley defence were struggling to cope. Unfortunately as I looked down to make some notes with my shiny new pen something happened. None of our group of five had been paying enough attention to notice but the next thing we knew there was a big gaggle of players squaring up to each other. As a result, returnee Craig Smith's afternoon was over. An early bath or shower his destination.

At least it was sunny!

 Despite that, Whitley spent the half on the attack, knocking at the visiting door. However no matter how much they knocked there was no coming in. Watling had a few words with one of the visiting defenders who pushed him and I did hope that in Premiership tradition there would be a sending off to even things up but there was only a yellow.

Tragedy!

At half time there was need for some warming refreshment. Tragically, our favourite little hut which supplied our half time tipples was shut...we would have to brave the temptation of the chip and burger van...not good for three growing not-so-young lads!

Don't breath in those chippy smells PT!

Whitley started strongly in the second half, having replaced the angry Watling with McMullen, but just over five minutes into the half, Bishops doubled their lead . Although the effervescent Robbie Birdie worked hard there was to be no luck and a few minutes later the third goal zipped into the home net and I am sad to say Whitley's interest in the game seemed to evaporate. A further goal for Bishops rubbed Bay noses in it. Our group blamed the fact that we had been asked to swap ends at the start of the match so that the Bellend Choir, still without their bell, had to move to the allotment end of the ground in the second half: never a good omen.

Not a happy boy!

It had been a painful day of football for me. My daughter's team that I coach had lost a thriller 3-2, Whitley had lost in less thrilling circumstances and as I returned home to watch the second half of the game featuring my French favourites RC Lens which they eventually they lost 2-0 to Lyon. This had provided PT with his favourite moment of the afternoon when I celebrated what I thought had been a Lens goal but my understanding of the French radio commentary had let me down as I failed to hear that a Lens player had scored a goal, but it had been an own goal. Newcastle losing 2-1 to Southampton failed to register as the family preferred to watch BBC's the Musketeers. 

The boy Mark and I had discussed whether we would still get a season ticket next year and the answer was still a confident yes. If only for the banter amongst good company. Wasn't that what watching non league football should be about?

Today football sucked but things could only get better....couldn't they?

December 6th 2015: Bedlington (h)

The look of foreboding!

I was quite relieved to have missed the previous home game because of my dear mam and dad's 50th wedding anniversary (I know loyalty to the team, blah blah...but it was 50 years and they have been canny to me all my life and I wanted to keep my head intact).  The Boy Mark had told me it was probably as dire as the Marske (0-7) and Shildon (0-5) games. At last now he couldn't try to make out that I was a jinx. However we were still excited to be wrapped up and coming out for another game...suckers! I decided to take my sketch book for a change so I could document the excitement that was undoubtedly going to follow although there was a huge sense of foreboding.
The good people of Whitley Bay hadn't shared our excitement at an evening out at Hillheads as the crowd of barely 200 failed to inspire yet as the game kicked off there was something different about the team. When they had the ball they didn't just throw it forward in a vain attempt to start the attacking ball rolling. In fact they were controlling the game simply by keeping possession and when the natural urge to hoy the ball elsewhere (and hope someone in a blue shirt claimed it) appeared it was suppressed like an unwanted tick. Instead the ball was laid off to a team-mate and another opening sought.

Excitement!

The Bay were being patient. At first Robbie Birdie Bird was getting frustrated because the ball wasn't coming to him on the right wing, however suddenly the patient build up meant the rest of the team began to see his runs and the amount of space he had. The ball started to move around. Even better than this was the workrate of young lad Scott Prosser in the middle of the park, who harried and even won balls that didn't look like he deserved. Although disappointing (and concerning) to be told by Chow that he wasn't playing tonight (still suffering from his nasty head injury on Boxing Day), in his absence another youngster Hylton Laws  was making darting runs and generally getting about the pitch: Statto Paul even called him a revelation. Both he and a rejuvenated Peter Watling were working hard and although there weren't many clear-cut chances created in the first half there was applause for the boys as they left the field.

The moving pitch...did it help the team play better?

It was then that Mark read the latest twitter feed that had been posted 7 seconds before kick off and therefore been missed in the excitement of the first half: we had a manager: Paddy Atkinson! Two things went through my mind :Who? and Good! I'm afraid my knowledge of other managers and teams around the non-league scene is scant so we did had to Google him but the fact is that whether he was in charge or not - our eyes couldn't make out the figure on the far side of the pitch - there had been a definite improvement in play. I would even go so far as to say it was the best performance since the glory days of Chan. The play was controlled and use of daft balls didn't occur. Laws and McFarlane looked confident at the back. That is not to say anything against Leon and co but we had never controlled a game in the way we had in the first half.

Wild celebrations

More wild celebrations

The bad old ways returned at the beginning of the second half and Bedlington took advantage to score. But this was not the team of Saturday...the Bay took greater control and started probing on both wings. When the Robster Birdie Bird sprinted into the box, he was brought down and a penalty was duly awarded. Peter 'the Great' Watling stepped up and scored to wild celebrations on the terraces.
Those who had thought that they had had their fill of excitement were to be surprised when Hylton 'the Judge' Laws went full length to head in the winner.
Although there were a few moments of panic as Bedlington threatened an equaliser it was to be our evening. A 2-1 win was no more than we deserved. The song "Can we play you every week" sprang to mind: this was our 3rd victory over the Terriers and even though they had a shiny scoreboard and substitutions board (show offs), we had the six points and victory in the Vase: all of which myself and the Boy Mark had witnessed. Fab!

Let's hope Paddy has the Golden touch...(sorry best I could think of)