A bumper crowd gathered at Hillheads on Sunday evening to see Whitley Warriors take on local rivals Billingham Stars in NIHL North action. Warriors were able to name a strong roster as the only senior players missing from their line up were Martin Crammond (who had taken part in the Great North Run earlier that day) and Nathan Ryder who is out of action long term following shoulder surgery.
Warriors used three forward lines throughout the game with Callum Watson linking up Adam Reynolds and Karl Culley to make up one forward unit, while Mark Good was selected alongside his brother DJ and Jamie Tinsley on Warriors other main offensive unit. Warriors looked strong in defence with Ross Hanlon returning to the squad after missing last week’s game, while Richie Lawson played in goal once again.
Whitley ran into penalty trouble once the game got underway as Warriors forward Jamie Tinsley was penalised for cross checking just 3 minutes into the game, which gave Stars an early powerplay opportunity which they successfully converted when Stephen Wallace fired home after being set up by blue-liner Andy Finn. Warriors were not rocked by Billingham’s early goal though and created several goal scoring opportunities of their own so it was no surprise when Mark Good found the back of the net after some brilliant link up play between himself and his brother DJ on 11 minutes to level the scores.
Whitley ran into more penalty trouble during the first period however Warriors penalty killing units were able to match everything Billingham’s offense created. Warriors started the second period superbly as Karl Culley fired Whitley into the lead with 24 minutes on the clock. Warriors got a powerplay of their own after 27 minutes of play and the experienced Whitley D man Rob Wilson made the most of the man advantage as he made it 3-1 just before the half hour mark.
Stars quickly upped their offensive game and Stephen Wallace’s trickery almost saw him net for Billingham just before the 35 minute mark however Stars did not have to wait long for their 2nd goal of the evening as James Moss managed to find a way past Warriors’ in-form goaltender Richie Lawson shortly afterwards.
Warriors took their slender 3-2 lead into the final period of action. Ross Hanlon and Jamie Tinsley both received minor penalties during the third period however Whitley’s penalty killing unit was able to successfully negotiate 6 minutes of Stars powerplay action with goalie Richie Lawson making a number of smart stops.
With under 2 minutes left in the game Referee Boynton disallowed a Billingham goal as he had already blown his whistle for an infringement before Stars had been able to get the puck over the line to the dismay of the vocal contingency of Billingham fans who had travelled up to Tyneside for the game.
Stars continued to press forward and they pulled their netminder late on which allowed them to have the extra outskater in an effort to tie up the game. However, Warriors’ defence remained strong which allowed Whitley to claim a superb 3-2 victory over their bitter rivals in the first Tyne Tees derby of the 2013/14 campaign. Richie Lawson’s fine performance in goal was recognised as he was selected as Warriors Man of the Match while Stars netminder James Flavell was chosen as the visitors best player during the 60 minutes of action.
Warriors Coach Simon Leach shared his thoughts on the game.
“We expected it to be a close game but we didn’t start very well and it took us a while to get into the game. If you take into account how many penalties we killed tonight and what it takes out of the players I thought we deserved to win the game.
“We did a good job in the second period getting a couple of goals and in the third when we needed to stick together we did and killed quite a few penalties, the penalty killing was exceptional tonight. We had guys diving in front of pucks there at the end and I couldn’t be happier.
“I changed the lines a little, it’s going to take a little bit of time to get them right as they’ve only had a couple of practices together. Callum’s[Watson] speed playing with Culley and Reynolds should work well and that line should deliver some positive results.
“We have to wait two weeks now before our next fixture which isn’t ideal but that’s the way the fixtures have worked out so we’ll just have to get on with it.”
