“We were better in both halves”

Whitley were comfortable winners at a windswept Billingham on Saturday and joint manager Derek Forrest felt that Whitley had coped well in the difficult conditions “I think we were better in both halves. We were good in possession with the wind and we looked dangerous; whereas in the second half I think we’ve defended well and they haven’t looked dangerous.”

“I think this was the first test of playing against a really strong wind when you’ve got to play with it first half then defend against it and it tests the defenders and they came through it great and to keep a clean sheet against a strong wind and deny all chances, we were really pleased. I think the lads have done great and from where we were a couple of weeks ago, to now keeping clean sheets and scoring goals we’re delighted.”

Tony Fawcett added “With the wind we were terrific, we created lots of chances, we were good on the set pieces, our pressing was good; we didn’t let them out of their half. We were composed and the quality was really good. Second half once the first five minutes had gone, we never looked like we were going to concede. They couldn’t create chances against us, we were disciplined, we were organised and then as the half wore on, in the last 20 minutes I guess we started to probe again and if there’d been another 10 minutes we could probably have scored another couple of goals.

This was Whitley’s fifth consecutive win but Fawcett pointed out “ We need to keep our feet on the ground and as I said to the lads we can only win one game at a time, and now we go one to the next game and start getting prepared for that and go just one step at a time.”

Speaking ahead of the lockdown announcement he continued “Regardless of what happens we’ve enjoyed it so far. If it’s a lock down we’ll just stay fit and hopefully get going again in December.”

As the happy Bay contingent set off on their journey back home, Derek joked “The most important thing is there was no horror show or a spooky Halloween!”