Roper reflects on game that “feels like a loss”
Yesterday’s 1-1 draw with Gloucester City in the Emirates FA Cup was hard to take for all Blues supporters.
Whitby Town were merely 30 seconds from securing their place in the final qualifying round of the competition but were pegged back right at the end of the match at the Towbar Express Stadium at the Turnbull Ground.
Midfielder, Corey Roper was placed in the starting XI for a competitive game for only the second time since joining the Seasiders and was impressive, but he felt deflated at full-time.
“It feels like a loss in many ways,” Roper admitted.
“We thought it would be our day just before they equalised as Kieza (Kieran Weledji) cleared one off the line.
“It was an excellent overall game from us as we all did our jobs across the park so it’s so frustrating.”
Particularly in the second half, the Seasiders had the better of the play and thoroughly deserved their lead and should have taken the victory.
The players were able to take heart from the performance at least and will hope to use that again in Monday night’s replay.
“I think we were the dominant team throughout the match,” said Roper.
“We created quite a few chances throughout which is why it’s so frustrating that we could only draw.
“It’s pleasing that we were able to show our qualities against a higher-ranked opponent.”
After this result, Whitby have very little time to prepare for the replay which will be played on Monday evening.
Players will now be left with the task of trying to get time off work in order to feature in proceedings at the Jubilee Stadium.
“We’ve now got to try and get time off work, myself included,” Roper declared.
“That’s the price we have to pay for only managing to draw in the initial tie due to the last minute goal.
“As a result, we’ve unfortunately got to do it all again in circumstances which aren’t ideal.”