Chairman Trevor Bull: Derby win against Whitby fuelled by excellent Boro crowd

A feisty clash at the Flamingo Land Stadium, in front of a bumper crowd of 1,615, saw ex-Boro striker Jacob Hazel fire the Blues in front after only nine minutes.

The hosts rallied after a fine start from Town and Boro deservedly levelled through Luca Colville on 27 minutes, and just before the break the Blues were reduced to 10 men when

Middlesbrough loanee Malik Djksteel was sent off after a scuffle involving 16 players following a foul by Boro’s Lewis Maloney.

The hosts secured all three points when Ryan Watson’s 66th-minute free-kick took a wicked deflection past Blues gloveman Shane Bland after the Town wall crumbled.

A buoyant Bull said: “It was a fantastic atmosphere thanks to the excellent crowd which turned out for the game.

“I think only 150 or so of the fans were from Whitby so that means over 1,400 came along to cheer Boro on and that was a brilliant effort on a cold and wet night in February.

“The players really fed off the atmosphere created by the fans, they were loving it right from pre-match warm-ups.

“I think after the fine start Whitby made it was the fans who helped drive Boro onto the win on Tuesday night.

“We have a tough trip to Lancaster on Saturday, our longest trip of the season, then we have FC United of Manchester a week on Saturday.

“FC United are going very well at the moment and pushing for the play-offs like us so they may bring between 500 to 700 fans so I’m hoping we can get a lot of Boro fans here and take it over the 2,000 mark to break our attendance record.

“We have always got on well with FC United with us both being fan-run clubs, so it should make for a great game.”

Bull is also happy with the run the Seadogs are on under the stewardship of manager Jono Greening.

He said: “When we appointed Jono last year he promised us that he would bring together a close-knit squad who would work hard for each other, and he has certainly delivered on that front.

“We are very happy with how the team is doing at the moment, to go eight games unbeaten is outstanding.

“Despite the result I think Whitby are well and truly still in the play-off reckoning as there are still a lot of games to be played, there are very few points between the top seven or eight clubs.

“Any team is capable of beating any other team in the NPL Premier Division, I know we have played more games than those teams above us but we are now only five points behind leaders Matlock Town.

“When we started out as a club 15 years ago we could only have dreamed of competing with teams at this level such as Whitby Town, and now we are within touching distance of National North and teams like York City!”