Whitley Bay vs Birtley Town

Recap

Birtley Town suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Whitley Bay on Saturday as the Hoops were hit for six.

Birtley went into the game welcoming Benji Shodeinde and Matty Ward back into the side. Flynn Martindale made his full debut since joining from Bedlington. Phil Mills started in goal, replacing the injured Alfie Gordon. The Hoops started brightly with Shodeinde having an early chance from a set piece. Bay keeper Gladstone easily saved from a Jack Elliott header. The game started to unravel for Birtley in the 12th minute. Whitley bay broke down the right, the ball was played inside for Mikel Thompson. Thompson was allowed too much time and space, picking out a neat finish into the top corner. 

Birtley looked to get themselves back into the game but the final cross or pass wouldn’t fall for The Hoops. The Hoops fell two behind on the half-hour mark. Martindale was unable to control a loose pass from Josh Strassheim before Liam Beeston spotted Phil Mills off his line. His long-range effort nestling over the head of Mills to double the hosts lead. The game was all but over in the 32nd minute as Mackenzie Sharpe was left unmarked from a set piece and he into the bottom of the net. Birtley made tow changes as they looked to alter the course of the game with Kevin Dixon and Kaleb Young coming on in the 36th minute. 

Half-Time | Whitley Bay 3-0 Birtley Town

The Hoops again started well with Proctor and Kaleb both having efforts from outside of the area. In similar fashion to the first half Birtley were again undone by their own poor defending. A long ball from the Bay keeper went straight through the heart of the Birtley defence which allowed Matthew Grigg to score. Benji Shodeinde was still pushing for a way back into the game and his effort on 61 minutes went narrowly wide of the post. Benji struck the underside of the bar just moments later. The Hoops pressed for a consolation but Bay managed to kept their clean sheet in tact. Birtley made a number of late changes before further errors seen the hosts complete their emphatic victory. 

Chris Luaba scored in the 92 minute despite protests from Birtley that Kevin Dixon had suffered a head injury. Bay were allowed time to cut inside before Luaba was able to cut back inside onto his left-foot and nestle the ball low into the net. bay scored their 6th of the game as Thompson squeezed in an effort from the edge of the box that beat Mills down to his near post. 

Half-Time | Whitley Bay 6-0 Birtley Town

Manager’s Corner

Reece Chapman: “We’re hugely disappointed with the result. In the northern league if you’re not at it you get beat, and Saturday we were well beaten – make no mistake. The bit that makes the result harder to take is that in the early stage of the game, and even after they scored the first, we were good. We caused Whitley plenty of problems but simply put the mistakes we have made collectively for their second and third goals are just nowhere near good enough, and we have let ourselves down with those moments. The second half started similar to the first, the lads looked to have responded to us well at half time and gave it a right good go, but more mistakes cost us for the 4^th. Again the 5^th and 6^th are really bad in final minutes of stoppage time at the end of the game. Well done to Whitley Bay, a well-deserved win. From our side we have to get things right. Yes, we have been missing players, big players, and injuries affected us Saturday but simply put, I have to be better, the management have to be better, the whole squad have got to be better. We’ll be working hard this week to get things right and will look to go again this weekend”.

H2H vs Whitley Bay (at Hillheads Park)
P2 W1 D0 L1 GF6 GA7

Next up…

Birtley host Shildon AFC next Saturday in a 3pm kick-off.