Skipper hails strike duo

Whitby Town skipper Robinson Mark Robinson insists he wouldn't swap the Seasiders' strike force for another pair in the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League, writes Andrew Snaith.

Ahead of the trip to Grantham on Saturday, Robinson credited recent signing Craig Farrell, eight goals in six games, and strike-partner Graeme Armstrong, five in three, as architects of their six-match unbeaten run in the Premier Division.

Despite their Doodson Sport Cup exit at Farlsey last week, the former Hartlepool defender reckons the Blues' front two can still fire them into the race for a play-off spot in the end of season shake-up.

He said: "I've spoken to a few people - friends, family, football fans in general - and I've always said you're only as good as your front two, or three. I wouldn't swap ours for any in the league at the minute."

"In the past, we've relied a lot on penalties and set-pieces. I know when Nathan [Mulligan] played up there he chipped in with quite a few goals but we did struggle to score in open-play. That's ended up with us drawing games we should've won and holding on in the last few minutes.

"We spoke about results others have had and looked at our points and we really think we can be in the shake-up, come the end of the season. As a whole, we are tightening up a little bit and creating chances for the forwards and fortunately for us, they're sticking them away. We hope that continues."

Robinson is desperate to play in one of the league’s form sides at Grantham's South Kesteven Sports Stadium after their cup exit and added: "I know we had a bit of a slip up in midweek, but hopefully that was maybe a bit of a blessing in disguise, knowing that we'd have to put that right in the next league game.

"We spoke, at length, about the defeat. The game was a bit flat, we went in maybe under-estimating them. In any cup game, you see when a so-called lesser team comes up against a better team they tend to raise their game and we thought we could roll them over a bit."

Whitby are hoping to extend a 100 percent record against the Lincolnshire outfit who were promoted back to the Evo-Stik NPL Premier in April as First Division South champions after a five-season absence. The Seasiders last did the double over them in 2006-07. The Blues are looking to repeat the feat following a 2-0 home win in October when top-scorer Mulligan was twice on target.

* Whitby are running a supporters coach to Grantham priced at £10 a ticket and the coach is due to leave the Turnbull Ground at 9.30am.