Hyde United began their bank holiday weekend fixtures with a thumping 5-2 win over Whitby Town at Ewen Fields on Saturday.
Tigers boss Nick Spooner shuffled his pack following Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat against Guiseley, with Shakeel Jones-Griffiths moving to right back and Tom Pratt taking up a more familiar role in midfield.
However, it was a spirited Antoine Makoli who put Hyde ahead on 11 minutes.
The winger pounced onto a loose ball by Whitby player-manager Gary Liddle, cutting into the box and drilling past a wrong-footed Shane Bland for his first league goal since scoring the winner against Basford United in September 2023.
Hyde doubled their lead 11 minutes later when Jordan Scanlon split the blue wall to find Pratt on the right flank, whose pinpoint first-time delivery was straight onto the toes of Lewis Rawsthorne, who converted from six yards out.
The visitors clawed their way back into the game on 37 minutes when Harley Dawson volleyed a deep freekick into the path of the evergreen Matty Tymon, with the 35-year-old bundling the ball in at the near post.
The home side restored their two-goal cushion just before the break when Makoli left his marker for dust on halfway, darted for the penalty area and lifted the ball over Bland for the deftest of finishes.
It only took nine minutes of the second half for Hyde to extend their lead to 4-1.
Rawsthorne latched onto captain Jack Redshaw’s sleek through ball but was knocked to the deck inside the Whitby box before he could pull the trigger, with his skipper blasting the resultant penalty straight down the middle.
Redshaw almost added another when he caught Bland off his line moments later, but his audacious 45-yard lob landed on the roof of the net.
There was still plenty of fight left in the Seasiders, though, with Donald Chimalilo being rewarded for his industry with a goal on the hour mark, curling a 20-yard shot past an unsighted Yusuf Mersin in the Hyde net for 4-2.
The Tigers capped the scoring on 71 minutes when Rawsthorne and Redshaw once again linked up for Hyde’s fifth.
The Radcliffe loanee guided a Pratt ball into an unguarded channel where Redshaw took a single touch before shooting beyond Bland with the help of a generous deflection.
Scanlon had another effort cleared off the line and substitute Mo Malumo snatched at the late one-on-one, but it felt like a redemptive performance for Nick Spooner.
“I can’t emphasise [enough] how let down I was on Tuesday,” the Hyde manager said. “I asked the players today to do it for themselves, do it for the football club, but most of all to do it for those fans.
“It’s pleasing that we’ve taken those chances, but that’s what I expect: clinical.
“There were some great performances from that forward four today, and we could’ve had more.
“We’re a nervous team when we let one in, and we’ve got to get that out of our system, but today we scored at the right times.”
The game also saw debuts for 20-year-old Charlie Frost, whose 34 goals helped Nelson to second in the North West Counties First Division North last season, and another loanee from Radcliffe, full-back Luke Partington.
“I spoke to Frosty in the summer when he’s been on trials with professional clubs,” said Spooner. “He came a trained with us on Thursday night and looked good.
“With Luke, by chance yesterday, Jonno [Radcliffe co-manager, Anthony Johnson] put a message out.
“We’ve had the bad news that Ditchy [Tigers right-back Harry Ditchfield] is going to be out for a while; Pratty’s been excellent there, but we need a full-back to balance the back four and balance what we want to build on.
“We need competition as well. We started the season with four defenders, but this takes us to six.
“I’m a lot happier now, we’re starting to put a squad together where maybe we can start pushing.”
The result moves Hyde into 8th place in the Northern Premier League table ahead of their bank holiday Monday game at Ilkeston.
