27th October - Morpeth (h)

This was going to be an entry like last Saturday's and I was wondering whether there would be any point writing about the match. Certainly in the first half it was a complete non-event as far as the Bay were concerned. Five - nil down at half time and only the prospect of a cup of tea and a sneaky chocky bar at Tommy's Tea Emporium worth raising any cheer...yet the evening had started so well.
My walk up to the ground had put me in a good mood as I reveled in the autumn splendour of Hillheads Road. The floodlight gleaming through the trees and the crisp golden and red leaves on the ground - a perfect evening for footie. There was a bit of a shock when I found out the programmes had sold out but I managed to fight back the tears and battle bravely on...

There was always the Whitley Bay Twitter feed with its fancy team line up to enjoy with its shock - not really -  news that Shanksy and Chuck Norris were on the bench. A run in the Vase would be a great way to show the progress in the club.
Then the game started and in the company of Neil and Paul and some of Neil's friends from Coventry, up for the week and staying at Cresswell Caravan Park, we witnessed Morpeth held at bay for 25 minutes then, with the help initially of a post the floodgates opened. In Twenty minute five goals flew in. I needed something stronger than tea! Yes that's right - chocolate!
Fortified by my snacks, I waited for more goals to fly in the Whitley net. I blindly said to the others that all the goals would go into the Morpeth net - we all laughed but took our places behind the large, bearded green machine that was Morpeth's keeper's goal.
Neil's mate's sons spent the half laughing about how much their keeper's outfit reminded them of snot: right down to his green boots. There were also fond memories of Dick and Dom playing "Bogies" in quiet spots of the world.
Surprisingly Shanks and Norris had been sent to rescue the situation and suddenly it was a different game. Whitley pressed, harried and finally managed to get a shot on goal. this was followed by another and finally ....a goal. At this point I may have had another out of body experience as the goal was scored - there must have been an alien craft lying in wait to carry out more experiments on me and causing the fog that was increasing in its density. This was because my film of the goal ended up as only a photo of the Green not-so-lean Machine trying to keep the ball off a desperate Shanksy.
As it was we were delighted by Shanksy's "chip" and Hudson's "looping header". (Thanks Whitley Bay Twitter for those ones).
Soon after we had our own version of the Russian linesman in the World Cup Final 1966...

The ball looked to have gone miles out but play was waved on for Shanksy to head home at the second attempt. The Coventry contingent went wild.

....and  Shanks is down!

Rapture on the terraces!

A slight concern came when Shanks went down a couple of times...supposedly to tie his shoe lace then the physio got involved. Thankfully there was no need: the goal maestro managed his double knot after some minor boot repair! The gamble at putting him on for the second half didn't look like ending in disaster for the Vase game on Saturday.



The final goal arrived late on, this time Bramley scoring his first goal of the season.

We had won the second half 3-0, forgotten the first half and could look forward with more optimism to the Vase game on Saturday. Top tip from the wise owl at the Bellend:....don't concede five if you expect to win!
Good luck on Saturday: shame I can't go!