League Match

Playing Away

Against Darlington

Score: Darlington 1 - Whitley Bay 10
(Graham, Kay 4, Hunter 3, McLean, Davidson)
 
Whitley travelled to Darlington with a strong squad and full of confidence. They started the quicker of the teams and within 6 minutes had taken the lead when a Roisin Turnbull through ball was fired into the corner by Helen Graham. They doubled their lead after 12 minutes when an almost identical goal saw Lynsey McLean play the ball through for Rachel Kay who slotted it into the corner. Two minutes later, a 30 yard pass from Lynsey McLean allowed Kay to run behind the defence and tuck the ball into the corner of the net. Whitley had started like a steam train and the momentum was continued when their fourth was scored by Kirsty Hunter as she knocked in a rebound from a saved Graham shot. The first half scoring was complete when a perfect free kick from out wide by Nikki Smith was headed home by Hunter. After the interval Whitley continued to enjoy the majority of possession and the 6th goal came when McLean fed Hunter and she fired home from distance. Credit to Darlington for trying to play the ball out of defence at every opportunity, but the pace of Jo Suddes caught them napping on two occasions. Firstly she stole the ball to play it to Hunter who in turn passed to McLean who got a well deserved goal with her left foot from the edge of the box, then she closed down the defender whose blocked clearance fell to Kay who claimed her hat-trick. Darlington scored a well deserved goal on 70 minutes when Helen Duffy pounced on a mix up between the Whitley keeper and the defence and knocked the ball into the empty net. In the last 10 minutes of the game, Whitley added 2 further goals as Nikki Smith won the ball as passed to Kay who scored her 4th with a powerful strike from outside the box and then Laurel Davidson received a ball from Hunter and smashed it in from 20 yards. Manager Colin Phillips was pleased with the win 'We started very well,with good pace to our game and despite Darlington's efforts, we attacked with real purpose and scored some great goals'