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Whitley Bay's miserable run in the pre-season fixtures continued at the weekend
when they crashed 4-1 at Gretna in the Borders. Bay, who lost 7-4 at home to Easington
48 hours earlier, were under pressure from the start and goalkeeper Walker was
twice called into action to deny Milne in the first five minutes. A minute later
though, the Seasiders found themselves a goal down when Walker spilled a shot
and Hodgson reacted quickly to tap the ball home. Andy Bowman was unlucky to see
a shot rattle the woodwork three minutes later after good work from Berry, but
the hosts found themselves two goals to the good when Mark Dobie's effort deflected
off Cass and looped into the net past a stranded Walker. The game had started
at a frantic pace, and a dreadful tackle by Roberts on Bay youngster Steven Bray
saw the visiting defender unable to continue after lengthy treatment, with Jon
King coming on as his replacement.
King went close to giving Whitley a lifeline five minutes after coming on, then
Bowman forced a fine save from the Gretna goalkeeper. Four minutes after the break,
Bay's bad luck continued when they saw a shot from Warwick bounce back into play
off the underside of the cross bar and a quick break from the Borderers saw Hodgson
race clear the make it 3-0. Bowman reduced the deficit with a well-taken strike
from 12 yards on 56 minutes, but Gretna completed the scoring on 70 minutes when
Hodgson took advantage of a slip to make it 4-1.
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