Whitley Warriors entertained the Sheffield Spartans on Sunday evening on North Tyneside in a NIHL North Moralee Conference encounter. Whitley were without a number of their regular players as Karl Culley was out of action due to injury, Ben Richards was ruled out through illness and Tommy Ralph was unavailable as he was playing for the Hull Stingrays in the Elite League.
Whitley’s new signing d man Paul Matthews came into the Warriors squad for the first time in a number of years after he agreed to come out of retirement to ice for Whitley. Matthews was paired with Rob Wilson on Warriors 2nd defensive unit throughout the match up. Youngster Callum Read who has been playing in defence with Wilson lately linked up with Josh Maddock for this match up.
Offensively Warriors went with 3 forward lines DJ Good, Adam Reynolds and Jamie Tinsley made up the opening forward line. Martin Crammond, Mark Good and Callum Watson were the 2nd unit and Jordan Barnes, Daniel Murdy and either Callum Queenan or Kyle Ross were the 3rd offensive line.
Warriors started the game well and just before the 4 minute mark nippy winger Callum Watson fired home to put the home side into an early lead. However Whitley did not hold onto their lead for long as under 40 seconds later Spartans forward Will Barron levelled the game up when he got the better of Richie Lawson in Warriors goal.
Whitley were creating plenty of opportunities during the first period and Warriors retook the lead after 10 minutes of action when Adam Reynolds lit the lamp after being nicely set up by blue liner Christian Johnson. After 14 minutes of play Warriors Rob Wilson and Spartans Ollie Barron dropped the gloves and both players were given 4 minutes in penalties for roughing following the altercation just off centre ice.
Just 16 seconds after the fight Reynolds set up Jamie Tinsley who shot past Bradley Day in the Sheffield net to make it 3-1 in Warriors favour. Whitley continued to create openings until the end of the 1st session of play however despite some attractive offensive play Warriors could not add to their 3 goals.
Shortly into the 2nd period of play Warriors extended their advantage when Jordan Barnes notched his 7th goal of the campaign when he tipped in a Paul Matthews blast from the blue line. Sheffield were also creating attacking opportunities of their own though and Spartans captain Ollie Barron made it 4-2 when he found the back of the net just after the half hour mark.
Warriors picked up a few penalties later on the in 2nd period however there was no further scoring in the middle stanza of action and Whitley came into the final session of play with a 2 goal lead. Sheffield put the Warriors defence under plenty of pressure during the last period of play and Whitley goaltender Richie Lawson made several fine stops to prevent Sheffield from lighting the lamp.
With just less than 4 minutes left in the game Warriors hard working forward Martin Crammond got Whitley’s 5th goal of the game with a superb slap shot. A minute later there was more drama when Spartans Coach Martin White was thrown out of the game on a Misconduct penalty which saw his side on the penalty kill for the remainder of the match up.
That was not the last incident though as with just 90 seconds left in the match up referee Tony Boynton took a puck to the face and had to receive immediate medical treatment from Warriors physio out on the ice thankfully the official was able to get to his feet shortly afterwards though he was visibly shaken.
Following the stoppage Warriors were able to play out the final part of the game and claim an impressive 5-2 victory over another side who are battling to make the end of season play offs. Whitley’s d man Christian Johnson picked up Warriors Man of the Match award while Andrew Cook was selected as the visitors top player over the course of the game.
Whitley Points –
Adam Reynolds and Martin Crammond 1+1, Callum Watson, Jordan Barnes and Jamie Tinsley 1+0, Paul Matthews 0+2, Mark Good and Christian Johnson 0+1
Sheffield Points –
Will Barron and Ollie Barron 1+0, Douglas Jordan 0+2, Nick Manning 0+1
Penalties –
Whitley – 16 minutes
Sheffield – 49 minutes
Shots on Goal
On Whitley (Richie Lawson) – 51
On Sheffield (Bradley Day) – 53
Warriors are in action again next weekend when Whitley make their longest away trip of the campaign down to Shropshire on Sunday evening to take on the Telford Titans in a NIHL North Moralee Conference game. Telford are yet to win a game yet this season but they have added a number of quality players to their roster recently so Warriors will have to be at their best to make sure they come away with the victory.