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| Albany Northern League Division One | n/k | |||
| Saturday 21st August 2004 | Billingham Synthonia V Whitley Bay | 3-1 | ||
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Bay were without Ben and Leon Ryan as they travelled to Billingham Synthonia who had won both their opening games. Bay fans who had expressed a wish to see their side keep a clean sheet for more than five minutes were to be sorely disappointed as a misunderstanding at the back let in Lee Flanagan to roll the ball past Terry Burke after only two minutes.
Bay were pushing hard for an equaliser and Lee Bell saw his header from a Paddy Little corner cleared off the line by Paul Crager but Bell was not to be denied and he struck the equaliser after 33 minutes with a trademark free kick from 20-yards after Edgcumbe had been fouled. Terry Burke was forced to block from Flanagan moments later to keep Bay on level terms, but Whitley should have taken the lead on the stroke of half time when Steve Leadbitter powered a header just wide from Peter Kirkham’s left wing cross. Whitley’s fans were optimistic that a result similar to that against Durham could be achieved but the second half was a massive disappointment. Christian Hanson forced Burke to tip over a free kick in the early moments of the second half, and then the home side took the lead when Wells had the simple task of heading home after both Fletcher and Flanagan had been allowed to flick the ball on from a corner after 52 minutes.
Burke had to save well from Bradley Smith and although Lee Kerr saw two another two chances blocked by Mohan after good link up play from McMahon there was to be no comeback. Manager Ian Chandler was far from happy afterwards “We let Billingham win without them earning the win. Several players let Whitley Bay down on Saturday and that's not acceptable. Once again we went down to a goal within 5 minutes and once again we fought back to 1-1 playing some reasonable football. Like the Bedlington game we were looking the better team and at half time I thought there'd be only one winner, but for some reason again like the Bedlington game we produced an awful second 45 minutes. Defending was terrible, and the time and space their midfield players had was unbelievable. ” You can read Pete's match reports first at http://wbfc.moonfruit.com
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Rice, Dom
So Whitley were having to play catch up football for the third time this season in as many games and they set about it with Wayne Edgcumbe firing in a fierce set which John Mohan did well to collect then Adam Johnston should have done better than to blaze wide with Edgcumbe well positioned in the centre.
Bay made a triple substitution after 63 minutes with David McMahon, Lee Kerr, and Nicky Evans coming on for Edgcumbe, Cuggy and Kirkham but five minutes later the home side increased their advantage as two Bay defenders got in a tangle allowing Flanagan to cross for sub James Magowan to tap home.