13th August 2019 - Bishop Auckland (h)

So this isn't a good idea!
Who knew?

A cracking day was spent with the eldest daughter and Mrs Blogger at The York Maze. Dinosaurs hidden all over a Maize field under the warmth of a glorious summer sun...what more could you ask for?
The answer was: no traffic problems, as I drove Mrs Blogger home in the Blogmobile! That's not what we got. The satnav kept adding all sorts of roadworks and its ETA  kept rising until it reached 7:53! That was 23 minutes after kick off!
Thankfully, still maintaining a sensible speed and distance from the cars in front, the roadworks weren't as bad as predicted and I made it to Hillheads just on kick off.
I had just joined Silly Andrew and Woodie when Bishops took the lead. In my frustration, I'm afraid I took my rage out on my programme, hurling it angrily down onto the ground.

Anger vented upon paper... the unacceptable face of football!

To rub salt into the old wound, it was old boy, Denver Morris, who had done the damage. My worst fears were being realised. Saturday's wounds were still fresh. But how could we be losing? The sun was still shining and the air was warm!
By half time, we were still losing and Luke Salmon's game had been reeled in, thanks to injury. In his place came James Proctor for his earliest introduction of the season (30 mins).

In order to keep their interest in the game going, it was essential the lads avoided a repeat of Saturday's early second half goal. Nathan had obviously told them so they pushed forward with conviction and started ruffling a few of the Bishops' feathers. Thomas Bott started adding his weight to the attack and it was his battle with the visitors' Daryl Hall. This was definitely not the musician who had performed so admirably with John Oates in the 70s and 80s. Our Hall was built like a brick $%&£house and had a slight height advantage on our own defensive colossus. As they battled away, the game swang Whitley's way. When keeper Nick Liversedge cleared a ball straight to a Bay shirt, he was extremely relieved to see the lobbed ball drift over his head. The lads were on the up.
Soon after, and with the lights only just illuminating the action, the Bay were level. Another rushed defensive clearance went straight to Brad Hird. His shot made no mistake as it flew into the left hand post.

 Cue usual celebratory picture:

Where's the warmth gone?
Who cares: 1-1

Complete farce followed, that ended up with referee, Craig Chatten's, grip on the game being firmly ripped from him. As a corner entered the six yard box, Proctor (I think) 'inadvertently' punched the ball goalwards. The ball was hooked clear and the Bishops called for a freekick. but CC felt sorry for us and decided to award us a penalty instead. Cue accusations being hurled at him, and his hapless linesman, by our indignant visitors.

"It was a blue arm..."
"When you wake up tomorrow..."
"You're a joke..."
"Is that the fourth thing, you didn't see lina?"
The abuse carried on but he stuck to his decision.
"But nobody appealed for a penalty!"

VAR results are in: Bishops freekick. If only the ref could have waited until the following afternoon!

To be fair, the ref could only have seen arms go up and had no idea which player handled. Behind the goal, we all laughed at the decision and I must admit, I did feel guilty for getting a penalty from this sequence of play. My instinct to tell the ref it was all a tragic mistake was easily supressed and Craig McFarlane stepped up to confidently drill the ball wide.

Justice had been done? The fear that this golden opportunity would come back to bite our behinds was strong. We now all expected Bishops to drive on to claim the winner in controversial fashion. But to buck a recent trend, the Bay continued to have the best chances. In fact, the whole incident had motivated the lads while Bishops had turned into feral beasts, arguing every decision and trying mostly foul means to wrestle the game away from the Bay. Daryl Hall (not the one with luscious curly blond locks to excite all and sundry) and ex Bay man, Callum Munro were getting away with murder and play was frequently broken up by moments of handbag fighting. CC remained completely ineffective as he kept his cards in his pocket and wandered around without the slightest air of authority.
A breakaway section from behind Liversedge's goal had taken up residence away to his left hand corner and their discussion of the merits of pot noodle pizzas was interrupted by the wondrous sight of Elfie's drive that was too powerful for the keeper's dive to stop. The lads were ahead with barely 7 minutes remaining.

They went wild...

Wildness ensued!

... sort of.

Whitley's first three points of the season had been earned at the expense of our old pal Chan's boys. After the shenanigans that had gone on, it couldn't have tasted sweeter.