Whitby Town boss Nathan Haslam delighted by performance in 1-0 win on road at Morpeth Town

The win saw the Seasiders move off the foot of the Pitching In Northern Premier League Premier Division table, courtesy of Jake Day’s first-half penalty, writes Paul Connolly.

It was a goal that put Whitby in the ascendency early, after a bright start to the game - something the Blues manager was particularly pleased with, while highlighting his side’s profligacy in front of goal.

“We’re all delighted with the win,” Haslam said.

“As we have in recent weeks we started on the front foot.

“We put Morpeth to the sword, we’ve had chances to kill it but in true Whitby fashion we haven’t done that. We were slicing through them at times early on.

“It was all in the game plan, we thought we could exploit them in certain areas and we did that.

“We were hanging on a little bit at the end but that’s always to be expected at Craik Park.”

The earliest stages of the game pointed to an open match incoming between the two sides, with both going close in the first ten minutes.

Sam Fishburn saw an effort saved well by Bland, though the offside flag was up against the on-loan Carlisle man. From the resulting free-kick, Day headed on Bland’s punt, with Harry Green getting round Josh Robson before squaring the Malik Dijksteel. The ex-Boro man could only blaze over when well-positioned.

Three minutes later, good work from Connor Thomson saw him cut in from the right, though he could only drag his attempt wide. But it was the visiting Seasiders who settled into the game and started to ask questions of their hosts. Day finished past Dan Lowson after Priestley Griffiths broke the line and played him through, but was denied his goal by the assistant ref’s flag.

And a minute later, Green got round Robson again and into the box, and fizzed a shot across goal and just wide of Lowson’s left-hand upright.

Just before the 15 minute mark the deadlock would be broken. Robson’s nightmare start got worse when Harvey Tomlinson danced through the Morpeth backline, before Robson elected to shove his man inside the box, leaving ref Alex Clark no choice but to point to the spot. Day stepped up and dispatched from 12 yards, into the bottom-right corner.

The imposing figure of Day was proving a real thorn in the side of the hosts, and the Whitby frontman could have had a second just over 10 minutes after his first, firing a snapshot on the turn across goal and marginally wide with Lowson rooted.

Whitby were in search of a second that, in truth, they would have been more than good value for. Dijksteel was next to go close, sending an acrobatic effort inside the box over the bar.

Despite the Seasiders’ onslaught, Morpeth were still a threat. A cross field ball from Chris Reid found Thomson, who drove into the box, but Bland made himself big to take the sting out of the shot with his legs, before holding.

In the moments leading up to the break, both sides had chances of their own - Jamie Bramwell drilling a thunderbolt across the face of goal and wide, before Morpeth struck the crossbar through Dale Pearson at the the other end as the whistle sounded.

Reflecting on his side’s first-half showing, while Haslam was pleased, he had some cause for concern over his side’s inability to add to their tally.

“We just seemed to get a bit excitable in front of goal,” he added.

“Instead of focusing on the ball we were snatching at things.

“We’ve got to finish these chances and the lads know that.

“We’ve ground it out in the end, which is credit to the lads but we’ve got to be a lot better when those chances present themselves.”

After the restart, it was Morpeth who looked to get themselves back on level terms, with Michael Turner’s looping header from Liam Noble’s corner hitting the roof of the net from six yards.

But Whitby continued to work good positions. Dijksteel played Griffiths through, though he could only fire well wide, before Day saw an effort deflected for a corner.

The introduction of Connor Pani, replacing Robson, sparked fresh life into Morpeth as the game wore down to its final twenty minutes. The Morpeth sub found himself with space to run in to, though fired his shot wide from range.

The shot signalled what would become something of a brief onslaught from the hosts. Bland did well to hold on the line in the middle of a chaotic scramble inside his penalty area, before the Whitby gloveman smartly saved Dale Pearson’s effort with his feet.

Whitby’s substitutes also found themselves having an impact on the game in the last ten minutes, with Aaron Haswell’s rasping effort awkward for Lowson to deal with, though the Morpeth stopper spilled the ball into an area he could eventually smother it.

A minute later Bland was called into action again, keeping out Noble’s low effort from twenty yards with ease.

Whitby’s failure to kill the game off in the first half saw them chasing a second still as the clock wore further on, trying to capitalise on brief spells where Morpeth weren’t camped in their half. This time it was the turn of Jake Hackett to sting the palms of Lowson with his shot from the edge of the area.

Bland would end up called into action again across the dying embers of the clash, first to keep out Reid’s close-range effort from a right angle, before reacting quickly to hold a ball on the line that spun off the back of Dan Rowe, ensuring Whitby held on to all three points.

The win lifts Whitby to 19th, going into their first home game in five weeks on Saturday afternoon, when they entertain fellow early strugglers Stalybridge Celtic at the Towbar Express Stadium at the Turnbull Ground.