Report: Whitby Town 0-2 Spennymoor Town

Taylor 19′, 86′

Tommy Miller was forced to replace James Curtis at the heart of the defence with the defender unavailable, with Carl Magnay slotting in alongside John Lufudu and a Trialist.

Glen Taylor returned to captain the side, with Dale Eve making his first appearance of pre-season in goal. 

There were also starts for Rob Ramshaw and Adriano Moke, both of whom joined the action from the bench on Saturday at Tadcaster Albion.

Spennymoor almost had the dream start inside a minute when Ryan Hall floated a ball to the back post on to the head of Stephen Thompson, but the wide man could only head over the bar.

Former Moors striker Bradley Fewster, who had a spell with the club in 2017/18, almost opened the scoring after ten minutes with an instinctive long range effort, but Eve watched the strike float wide of the post.

A wonderful pass from Brad Abbott carved open the Whitby defence two minutes later, but after cushioning the ball down, Thompson opted to square to Taylor instead of trying his luck and the chance went begging.

Moors did find the opening shortly before the twenty minute mark, and, unsurprisingly, it came through Taylor who continued his scoring run during pre-season.

A lucky ricochet via Lewis Ritson allowed Taylor to break forward, but, the striker took control of the situation from that moment, calmly cutting inside and bending a pinpoint effort past Shane Bland.

One almost became two a minute later as Moors looked to put the game beyond Whitby, but Thompson fired over the bar after good work from Taylor, Hall and Ramshaw.

That would prove to be the last action for Thompson who was forced off on the half mark, with a Trialist replacing him at full back.

Ramshaw had a golden chance to double Moors’ advantage heading into the interval, but his low shot was saved by the legs of Bland.

Miller made two changes at the break, welcoming back Joe Tait in place of Hall, as well as Mark Anderson in place of Mulhern.

The second half was void of action and incident for twenty minutes until Taylor connected sweetly with Ramshaw’s dinked cross, forcing a smart stop from Bland.

Whitby created little to nothing for the entire contest but burst into life with twelve minutes remaining, aided by a loose back pass from Tait, however, Jacob Hazel struck a tame shot straight at Eve.

Eve was called upon a minute later when Whitby defender Ritson charged forward, but also struggled to get any power allowing Moors’ keeper to make a comfortable stop.

Taylor continued his personal duel with Bland moments later but saw his powerful shot blocked, before Anderson’s strike was superbly blocked by Ritson.

Bland was eventually beaten by Taylor for the second time on the night following a moment of class from Ramshaw, who sprayed a pinpoint cross field pass to the feet of the striker.

Taylor allowed the ball to settle before zipping a pinpoint shot into the bottom corner, leaving Bland routed to the turf.

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