By Andrew McDonnell (@AndrewSJourno)
Morpeth Town have a great record against Whitley Bay in recent seasons, and they’ll be looking to extend their eight-game winning streak against them.
Club: Whitley Bay
Nickname: The Seahorses
Founded: 1897 (as Whitley & Monkseaton)
Ground: Hillheads Park, Rink Way, Off Hillheads Road, Whitley Bay, NE25 8HR
Craik Park to Whitley Bay: 17 miles
Last Season: 6th
Twitter: @WhitleyBayFC
The Highwaymen were made to work for their victories against Whitley Bay in all three of their matches in the 2016-17 season.
Morpeth won 3-2 at home in the league in September, with Chris Reid – scoring against his former club – Michael Chilton and Steven Anderson getting on the scoresheet.
Ben Sayer’s brace, along with Joe Walton’s strike, was enough to guide Nick Gray and Dave Malone’s side past Whitley during another close encounter, this time in the First Round of the Northumberland Senior Cup in October.
After a few weeks off during the winter period, due to bad weather forcing games to be postponed, the Highwaymen managed to get through a tricky game at Hillheads in January. Sean Taylor’s goal and Mark Davison’s header helped Morpeth seal a league double over the Seahorses.
Manager Marc Nash has brought in defender Michael Hall from West Allotment Celtic and midfielder Matthew Cornish from Newcastle Benfield during the summer so far.
Peter Glen-Ravenhill has agreed a deal to stay as well as Alex Kempster, Chris McDonald, Andy Robertson, Ross Wilkinson, Kyle Patton and Liam Brooks.
The first meeting between the two sides was back in September 2001, where the Bay won 3-0. They have gone on to face each other 29 times in all competitions since then, with Morpeth winning 15, drawing two games, and Whitley picking up 12 wins.
As for the record at Hillheads, Morpeth have won four of the 13 meetings, drawing two games, and the Bay winning seven games.
However, Morpeth have won eight-successive games against Whitley, and they’ll look to extend that run even further when the sides meet in September and December respectively.
