“It was a tough game”

Joint manager Tony Fawcett was naturally disappointed to see Whitley suffer their first league defeat of the season at Stockton. “It was a tough one, it was a tough game; we knew it was going to be difficult coming here. I thought we acquitted ourselves quite well for 30 minutes or so and I think as a whole we defended quite well, but we weren’t much of an attacking threat for the rest of the game. They aren’t easy to play against, so credit to them. Are we disheartened that we’ve lost? Of course we are, but there were some half decent performances and I think we defended quite well. At half time Darren Hamilton had to come off injured, the lad caught him late, high up on the shin and I don’t know why it wasn’t called a foul. And then we’ve lost Dunny to an injury and one of the subs who came on got injured, so it’s been one of them nights. It happens in football, it’s part and parcel of the game but we’ve got a great squad and we made some changes tonight. It’s what happens, we’ve no complaints, the better team won. Looking back on it, I thought the first half was really even and both sides had chances, both played quite well but second half Stockton were the stronger side and deserved the win.”

Goalkeeper Chris Bannon was kept busy during the second half and Fawcett commented “Chris was terrific, he was really good tonight. I’m not sure he could do anything about the two goals, they were both good goals but he’s played really well, as we did defensively as team.“