WHITE TIGERS WORK HARD

THE WHITE Tigers slipped to a 4-2 Boxing Day defeat at the hands of Torquay United despite taking the lead.
Both sides enjoyed their fair share of the early possession, although genuine chances were few and far between.
There was a smart save from Rivers as a free-kick pumped into the area caused problems and was headed goalwards.
Our first sighting of goal came when Riley-Lowe was able to get in an inviting cross which was seized upon by Harvey who fired over from a good position.
It wasn’t long before Harvey found his range though as he gave us the lead with a powerful drive with 17 minutes on the clock.
The goal was deserved for our early work-rate but it prompted the home side in life and Rivers had to be alert to save well to keep them at bay as they searched for a response.
Our resistance was broken just before the half-hour mark when Kalala rattled the crossbar only for Lemonhaigh-Evans to curl home the rebound.
Soon afterwards Janneh went close as his effort was deflected wide but it wasn’t long before Kalala fired home from distance to give Rivers no chance and make it 2-1.
Just three minutes later and we found ourselves further behind as Hall tried his luck and the ball nestled into the back of the net.
The home side were playing some neat football at this stage as we urged half-time to come. Janneh went close just before the break.
The second period started with Reid going close before Janneh was able to make it 4-1 with 49 minutes on the clock.
It gave us a mountain to climb, but to our credit, we refused to let our heads drop and started to get a foothold back in the game as Harvey went close when he got in front of his marker to fire just over.
Then Harvey was thwarted by a good stop from MacDonald as the resulting corner had to be scrambled away at the far post.
With 20 minutes to go, a free-kick from Riley-Lowe was met by a flicked header from Jamie Richards that landed narrowly wide of the target.
Reid linked up well with Wynter for the home side as the latter cut inside but lashed over, but we were able to reduce the arrears with six minutes to go when a low ball into the danger zone saw Lewington react the quickest to turn the ball home and make it 4-2.
We had to survive a late goalmouth scramble as three efforts in quick-succession from the home side were bravely blocked as we put our bodies on the line as in the end we came away with nothing to show for our efforts despite a hard-working display.

WHITE TIGERS: Rivers, Thompson, Riley-Lowe, Grimes, J. Richards, Rooney (Harding 55), T. Richards (Hurst 74), Keats (Leigh-Gilchrist 57), Allen, Lewington, Harvey. Subs not used: Booth, Bentley.
BOOKING(S): Riley-Lowe
GOAL(S): Harvey, Lewington.