Whitley Warriors 4, Billingham Bombers 3

Mar 3 2008 by David Hall, The Journal

THE Warriors took the points in a tense North East derby at Hillheads last night when they edged Billingham in a seven-goal thriller to end their Northern League campaign with a win.

Andrew Tindale opened the Whitley scoring with a well-worked goal and went two ahead as Nathan Salem found the net. Bombers were on the scoreboard soon after courtesy of a Stephen Pritchard powerplay marker before Culley raced away to score a short-handed effort with just 39 seconds left.

Stuart Gibbon put the puck into an empty net after it had looped over the head of Whitley keeper Thomas Murdy and as Billingham tried to draw level in the final session another excellent Tindale effort gave the home side some vital breathing space as he made it 4-2.

And that goal proved to be the winner despite Andrew Fletcher reducing the arrears on 55 minutes to set up a tense finish to the game with the visitors laying siege to the Whitley goal as they took off their netminder for an extra forward.

SCORERS – Whitley Warriors: Tindale 2+0, Culley 1+2, Salem 1+0, Howey 0+2, R Sample, Carter and leach 0+1. Billingham Bombers: Pritchard, Gibbon and Fletcher 1+0, Thomas, McCabe and Ward 0+1.