Warriors leave it late to clinch a win

Nov 5 2007 The Journal

Whitley Warriors 3, Manchester Phoenix 2

WHITLEY Warriors waited until the last 10 minutes to claim victory at home to Manchester Phoenix at Hillheads last night, as the bottom-of-the-table side belied their position for 50 minutes.

James Rogerson completed a good Phoenix move to open the scoring at 18.18 and the same player managed to find the target with a speculative drive six minutes later to extend their advantage. The Warriors were peppering the Manchester goal all night, but were finding man-of-the-match Benn Schofield an almost impossible barrier to breach.

However, Daniel Murdy eventually found a way through at 50.09 and the Warriors were able to snatch a win.

WHITLEY WARRIORS: D Murdy 2+0, M Good 1+0, Tindale and Allinson 0+1.

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Billingham Bombers 2, Whitley Warriors 4

WHITLEY Warriors took the spoils in a typically hard-fought Tyne-Tees derby clash to open their Northern League account for the season and leave Billingham still pointless at the bottom of the table.

DJ Good gave the visitors the perfect start with a powerplay goal inside the opening two minutes and the Whitley lead was doubled when older brother Mark scored. But the Bombers were more determined in the second period and the only goal of the session came from the stick of Scott Ward in the 34th minute when he bundled the puck over the line for a home powerplay marker.

And three minutes into the closing stanza the game was level as Billingham skipper Paul Windridge fired high over the shoulder of Whitley keeper Thomas Murdy. But it was still Bombers netminder Mark Thurman who was the busier and he was beaten by an Andrew Tindale goal at 46.02.

Bryan Dunn, Warriors’ man of the match, secured the points for his side with another powerplay goal two minutes later.

BILLINGHAM: Windridge 1+1, Ward 1+0, McCabe Fletcher and Serrell 0+1.

WHITLEY WARRIORS: Tindale M Good and Dunn 1+1, D Good 1+0, S Zajac Culley and Hendry 0+1.