Rothbury suffer a sixth successive league defeat

For 70 minutes Roth bury were the better side, playing the ball around well on a surface which cut up badly.

After a goalless first half, Gareth McCann gave them the lead just three minutes into the second period, rounding the keeper before rippling the net with a well struck shot.

But all their good work was undone after the hour when Whitley Bay scored twice in two minutes to turn the match on its head.

First of all Adam Whitehead picked his spot and drilled in a shot from the edge of the box for the equaliser.

Then, just 120 second later, the home side bagged an unlikely winner when Paul Appleby pulled off a great to save, only for his parry to fall kindly to Thomas Atkinson, who smash it in.

Manager Dan Herron couldn’t fault the effort and style that his side had put in, saying: “We were desperately unlucky to not get something from the game, but it’s our own doing unfortunately.”

“We had five or six really good chances in the first half - Greg Woodburn and Chrissy Coe were causing havoc down the right. Greg rounded to keeper and went wide from a tight angle. Also Greg ran past two of their players and fizzed one in for Gareth McCann, but it was cut out well for a corner. We had lots of joy in the first half but couldn’t capitalise.”

If that inability to hit the back of the net had proved a bit frustrating for the Reds it didn’t show as they came roaring back out of the blocks in the second period and went ahead after just three minutes. Harry Felton played a quality ball over the top as Rothbury counter-attacked at pace and hit-man McCann went around the keeper to hammer it rippling high into the roof of the net. Coe almost added a second just five minutes later, but couldn’t get the ball out from his feet to let fly.

“After we went 2-1 down we just didn’t react,” said Herron.

“We looked totally deflated and didn’t play any football at all after that point. It was such a contrast as some of our play in the first half was some of our best all season, which I was so proud of given we had the bare 11 players.”