Chorley FC 2 Whitby Town 2



An exciting game at Victory Park from start to finish as promotion chasing Chorley drew with relegation threatened Whitby Town.

With how this season has panned out for these two sides so far - Chorley losing just 1 of 10 home league games and Whitby Town winning only 1 of all their 19 league games - anyone looking at the stats would've expected this to be a home banker. But Whitby have signed a batch of players in the past week to try to save their season, and it was one of these who scored a wonder goal in just the 2nd minute of this game.

Jimmy Beadle, a former fans favourite at Whitby who re-signed earlier in the week, announced his re-arrival midweek with a 40 yard screamer. And 2 minutes into this game with Whitby passing the ball around, Beadle got it and incredibly shaped up to shoot from 40 yards. His shot looped up high, sailed goalwards and dipped perfectly into the right corner of the goal. It was amazing that he even dared attempt this, and what a stunning goal it was. The Chorley fans were mainly in stunned silence, some even applauded such was how good it was.

Early on the Chorley players seemed to quite leisurely in their passing, they seemed to be expecting a routine win but as a result there were a lot of careless giveaways. Their only good chance early on was around the 17th minute, their player was put through in the box but the keeper chased out and managed to half block the shot so it rolled wide.

Meanwhile Whitby were playing the ball about with a surprising confidence, and a header from a cross from the left went just over the top right corner. Straight after that in the 20th minute they got a free kick on the left corner of the penalty area. It was hit low into the crowd, and a fluffed attempt at a clearance from the defender lead to the ball going straight through him, and straight to Whitby's Jamie Clarke, who slid the ball past the keeper and into the net from around 3 yards out to make it 2-0.

Whitby were on top at this point and a few minutes later a header was tipped over by the keeper and then a looping shot from 20 yards went just over the bar. But Chorley should've had a goal back around the 27th minute, a low cross from the left set up a one on one with the keeper from little more than 6 yards, but with an easy tap in expected he instead blasted it over the bar, an awful miss.

Beadle had the last decent chance of the first half, as his low shot from 20 yards which was going well wide to the left took a deflection along the way, in the end still going just wide to the left of the goal. At half time Whitby deserved their 2-0 lead.

Whitby tried to carry on the same way early in the 2nd half, and after a skewed clearance from a defender their striker was through on goal, but his attempted chip sailed wide to the right of the goal.

Then from the 60th minute onwards the game swung, as Chorley started to pile forward. First a shot on the edge of the penalty area went the wrong side of the right post, then in the 62nd minute a corner from the right was headed back across the goal and lashed into the net by Wayne Maden to make it 1-2.

Whitby were forced to retreat as Chorley took over, a shot in the penalty area went just over the top right corner, and then a 66th minute header was tipped over as it travelled towards the top left corner.

The game paused in the 73rd minute as Chorley's Tom Walker went down injured. There didn't seem to be anything that happened to cause it, but he stayed down and the stretcher was waved on. He was carried off very carefully, and the later news was that it was a suspected broken ankle. An ambulance appeared 15 minutes later and reversed into the ground behind one of the goals as play went on.

Meanwhile on the pitch, in the 77th minute Chorley's Steve Foster was put through on goal. Foster, Chorley's top scorer who scored in the 1-0 win at Whitby earlier this season, took his chance brilliantly, chipping over the advancing keeper from 20 yards, the ball landing low in the net to make it 2-2.

Whitby, who'd been camped in their own half for the previous 20 minutes, tried to respond immediately to this, first a shot went over the bar and then Beadle had another attempt, this time just from 25 yards and this time caught by the keeper.

Chorley continued to create a lot of chances, a sliding effort from wide right to get on the end of a cross from the left was blocked by a sliding defender, and as the game approached the 90th minute a header from wide right went into the side netting.

6 minutes were added on due to the injury and there was an end to end finale. In the 93rd minute Chorley thought they'd won it, a big scramble right in front of goal resulted in two different efforts both being cleared off the line, and as the ball was cleared away several of the Chorley players pleaded with the referee, clearly thinking the first of the two efforts had crossed the line.

As they protested Whitby rushed forward on their own counter attack, and a shot from the right edge of the penalty area was just blocked by the keeper. There was still time for a final Whitby attack, this time a low effort was caught by the keeper.

Full time 2-2, on paper a great point for Whitby but mixed with the disappointment of losing a 2 goal lead. On this evidence though Whitby have some good new signings and they look like they'll be climbing up the table soon enough. Meanwhile Chorley did well to battle back but will be disappointed not to get 3 points - a poor first half from them did the damage, but they showed their quality and ability to dominate in the second half.