Bradley Fewster nets late winner as Whitby Town see off high-flying Hyde United

The line-up for the Seasiders saw Alfie Doherty come in for Jacob Gratton and Bradley Fewster, fresh off a hat-trick against Northallerton Town in the Woodmith Construction North Riding FA Senior Cup, replace Stephen Walker in the starting eleven against a Hyde side pushing for the play-offs, writes Will Berwick.

Proceedings got underway with the home side on the front foot. Lewis Hawkins called Hyde United goalkeeper Jordan Eastham into action as he denied the Whitby Town midfielder's effort following a corner.

Midway through the half, Nathan Thomas would finally open his account for Whitby Town.

It came at the end of a beautiful passage of play in which Junior Mondal was the catalyst as he dummied the ball for Priestley Griffiths who managed to pick out Doherty, who in turn found Thomas in the penalty area and he saw his low strike nestle in the bottom corner.

Shane Bland was then on hand to rescue Whitby as the away side thought they were level on the stroke of half-time, but the Whitby shot-stopper had other ideas as he instinctively stuck a foot out to take the ball away from Lewis Alessandra.

After the interval the Seasiders made their intentions known early on as they went in search of a second goal. However this was something that they were unable to find.

Junior Mondal would go for goal from a very tight angle but send his shot sailing over the bar, while Hawkins got be involved once again as his strike from distance was dealt with easily by the Hyde goalkeeper.

Whitby’s missed chances allowed Hyde back into the game as they got themselves level after 62 minutes through Joel Amado who headed home from a poorly defended corner by Whitby.

After conceding, Nathan Haslam turned to his bench, firstly bringing on Jerome Greaves for Adam Gell. Aaron Haswell was also introduced earlier on in place of Doherty.

In a game of cat and mouse which either side could have won, it was the home side who grabbed a late winner as striker Fewster scored in the 89th minute, dinking the ball over the Eastham after Dan Rowe headed Priestley Griffiths' free-kick back across goal.

Despite a substantial period of stoppage time, Whitby hung on for the victory to complete the double over high-flying Hyde.

The win lifted the Blues into 10th position in the Premier Division table.

Boss Haslam said: “It was an exciting game, perfect weather conditions, with two good sides going head to head, lots of incidents but thankfully for us we have come out on the right end of the result.”

On the setpiece leading up to Fewster’s goal, and the effort itself: “It’s something we do and something we are quite good at, and it felt just nicely for Fewster to lift over the keeper’s head, it’s hit the bar, it’s gone down and the linesmen’s given it.

"We will take that, especially the time at which it came, it left Hyde with no real chance of coming back.”