By Albatross
November 4 2003

It's time to have a closer look at the team we face in the FA Cup First Round on Saturday. Whitby Town are of course a side that Hartlepool United have encountered many times in friendlies - but this weekend's game is going to be another kettle of fish entirely.

Whitby have a long history in local non-league football, and one with some notable high points. A Northern League side since 1926/7, that's precisely where they spent most of their history. Finishing runners-up in their first season, it took them until 1992/3 to win the title for the first time - although there had been occasional near misses - and when they won again in 1996/7 they were accepted into the Unibond League Division 1. The bug for success had well and truly struck - that season they also made the FA Cup first round and took Hull to a replay before losing in extra time, and won the FA Vase with a victory at Wembley over North Ferriby United.

More was to follow, with Whitby's first season in the Unibond being a roaring success. 99 points won them the Division 1 title and promotion to the Unibond Premier - and with a creditable 7th place in their first season the Seasiders looked in pretty good shape. The ground though has been a bit of a stumbling-block; the Turnbull Ground holds 3,200, more than enough for a side with an average attendance in the region of 300, but it's not regarded as being of sufficient quality to satisfy the authorities if Whitby want to go higher; they narrowly avoided being relegated from the Unibond Premier last season simply on the state of the ground. Fund-raising to allow them to build a new main stand to comply with regulations continues, and the contribution made by their FA Cup run so far - somewhere around £10K - has been a big boost. Even assuming they get their ground up to standard it looks unlikely that Whitby will be eligable to join the new Conference North that will come into existence next season, due to league position - currently they're struggling at the wrong end of the Premier.

Whitby's pedigree as a cup team goes back some time. They were finalists in the FA Amateur Cup back in the 60s, reached the quarter-finals of the FA Trophy in the early 1980s, and have reached the FA Cup 1st Round for the 8th time this season. This included four seasons running from 1983/4, during which they twice reached the second round. Their finest moment came perhaps in 83/4, when they knocked out Halifax in the first round before going down 1-0 to Wigan. The last time they made this stage of the competition was in 2001/2, when Plymouth needed a replay to get past them.

There are a number of connections between Hartlepool and Whitby, both past and present. In the current squad, Anthony Ormerod spent an unsuccessful loan spell at Pools, and the experienced Tony Hall apparently also had a spell on our books (though I couldn't tell you when!). A couple of the players also have family connections - Brian Linighan is the younger brother of David and Andy, while striker Craig Veart is the son of Bobby Veart, who played for both Pools and Whitby in his time. In the past there have been a number of our former players that have found their way to Whitby, two of the most famous (or is that infamous?) being John Borthwick and Andy Toman.

There will be a full match preview later in the week, but to see what the Whitby fans are thinking, try visiting their Official Website and have a look around.

While this should be the sort of game that Pools win comfortably - especially given that a second string Pools side won a friendly there in pre-season - Whitby are looking forward a great deal to mixing it with the big boys once more. Their board of directors would find the financial boost of an upset victory very welcome, and there's plenty of the squad with some pro experience who will I'm sure be itching to show the world that they were worthy of more of a chance than they were given at their respective clubs. Add in some promising youngsters hoping to put themselves in the spotlight, and if there's one thing we can guarantee it's that our opponents will not lack commitment and effort - and often that's proved to be more than enough in this magical competition we call the FA Cup.