Whitby Town skipper Daniel Rowe delighted to mark 100th game with crucial goal in Bamber Bridge win

After Lee Bullock and Nathan Haslam’s side opened the scoring through Bradley Fewster, Matthew Hudson was given a red card for a handball outside the area, writes Liam Ryder.

Rowe’s towering header extended the home side’s lead early in the second-half, the defender’s first goal of the season, before the Blues comfortably saw out the remainder of the second half to earn their first win in just over a month.

Rowe, who was also making his 100th appearance in a Town shirt, told The Whitby Gazette: “The main thing was the three points which we needed.

“We topped it off with a clean sheet and I got myself a goal which was well overdue.

"It was a good day and hopefully now we can kick on.

“It’s a proud moment to make 100 appearances for Whitby.

"My time at the club has flown by and I probably could have had some more appearances were it not for Covid.

“I’m really happy that I’ve made 100 appearances and I want to kick on and get some more.

“My goal was one we needed to really kill the game off early in the second half. It was long overdue and I was happy to see it go in the back of the net.”

An impressive scoring season from Fewster and Jacob Hazel has seen the vast majority of Whitby’s attacking threats come at the top end of the pitch.

Captain Rowe, who joined the Seasiders from Frickley in February 2019, also admitted that practising set-pieces has been something that the side have been working on in training.

The Blues’ skipper added: “We haven’t scored enough from set-pieces but we’ve been working on them.

“It was a great ball from Jass (Sukar) and it was right on my head. I was happy to have got on the end of that one.”

After sealing three points against the Lancashire outfit, moving into sixth place in the process, Rowe is hopeful his side can continue to climb the league ladder.

The former Rotherham United man said: “We couldn’t get complacent but I thought we played really well for the full 90 minutes.

“We were switched on, we didn’t let them back into the game because they could easily have scored on the counter-attack. It was a professional performance in the end.

“We’ve got ten games left and that win will give us confidence. We’re aiming to get into those play-offs and hopefully now we can get on a run and get some more points on the board.”