Blues sunk by Solomon’s double strike at Marine

After keeping the Mariners at bay for the majority of the NPL Premier clash, with the defence more than holding their own, Sol Solomon's close-range strike opened the scoring in the closing stages of the first half before the same player doubled the hosts' advantage in the second half, writes Liam Ryder.

The result left the Seasiders routed to the bottom of the table.

Nathan Haslam made three changes from the side which went out of the Isuzu FA Trophy at Guiseley the previous week as Aaron Cunningham, Jake Day and Coleby Shepherd all came in for Jonathan Burn, Bradley Fewster and Jake Hackett.

The visitors almost got off to the perfect start against the Mariners as Harry Green went close to opening the scoring.

After he rounded Bayleigh Passant, the attacking midfielder danced around Marine defenders inside the box but his eventual effort was blocked behind for a corner.

Shane Bland produced an important stop to deny Dunn as the dangerous Marine winger's low strike was well held by the Whitby gloveman.

Malik Dijksteel brilliantly ghosted past the defence before seeing his low effort spilt by Passant but the dutchman saw his second shot sail over the crossbar.

With the half-time whistle approaching, Marine opened the scoring through Solomon.

After he latched on to a dinked ball into the box, the hosts' number ten was able to fire low past Bland inside the penalty area.

There was a strong hint of offside about the goal, along with a handball shout in the build up that was ignored.

In the second-half, Soni Fergus was on hand to deny James Barrigan as the right-back positioned his body perfectly between the strike and the goal.

Bland completed another key save in the 57th minute, rushing off his line quickly to save Solomon's effort after the Whitby defence were caught napping on the edge of their box.

Marine added to Whitby's misery as Solomon, via Dunn's initial effort, diverted the ball away from Bland to make it 2-0.

Whitby eventually settled and created some presentable opportunities in the closing stages.

Day went close first, but he could only head into the hands of Passant, before Fergus' looping ball from the right forced Passant to stumble backwards and just about see the ball go behind.

Passant was called into action again to tip Fewster's glancing header over his bar before Day was involved again in the 83rd minute, slicing an effort wide of the mark.

The second moment of controversy came two minutes later when debutant Harvey Tomlinson struck a beautiful free-kick off the crossbar.

The goal wasn't awarded by the officials, but images show that the full ball had crossed the line.

A Whitby goal would have led to an interesting final few minutes, with Marine having difficulty in dealing with a Griffiths free-kick seconds later.

Whitby Town: Shane Bland, Soni Fergus (Aaron Haswell 75), Coleby Shepherd, Jamie Bramwell, Daniel Rowe (c), Aaron Cunningham, Harry Green (Harvey Tomlinson 60), Lewis Hawkins, Jacob Day, Malik Dijksteel (Bradley Fewster 66), Priestley Griffiths

Subs not used: Jake Hackett, Jonathan Burn.