Whitby Town suffered their first defeat of the Graeme Lee era, despite a spirited second-half comeback, as FC United of Manchester claimed a 4-2 victory at Broadhurst Park.
The Blues found themselves two goals behind at half-time but showed tremendous character to draw level through a Callum Hickman brace. However, late goals from Niall Watson and Adam Le Fondre secured all three points for the hosts.
FC United started positively and created opportunities to break the deadlock in an encouraging opening period. Joel Bailey saw his first-time effort blocked before Matthew Donohue sent a long-range strike narrowly wide.
The hosts continued to threaten, with Jay Harris forcing Oliver Swan into action with a curling effort that the Whitby goalkeeper tipped away from danger. Swan was called upon again in the 19th minute, saving Donohue's low, first-time strike to keep the scores level.
And following their promising start, FC United took the lead in the 33rd minute. Donald Chimalilo beat the offside trap before Le Fondre arrived in the penalty area to convert from close range.
The hosts doubled their advantage eight minutes later when Michael Donohue was picked out at the back post and tapped home. Whitby had a chance to respond before the interval, but Daniel James' curling strike took a deflection and went wide for a corner, leaving the visitors with work to do at the break.
The Seasiders could hardly have asked for a better start to the second half. Just two minutes after the restart, Swan launched a long ball forward, which was nodded backwards by an FC United defender. Hickman reacted quickly, collected the ball and calmly slotted beyond Daniel Atherton to halve the deficit.
The goal injected fresh belief into Whitby, who continued to push forward in search of an equaliser. With momentum firmly swinging towards the Blues, the game remained finely balanced. Stan Hewitt saw a deflected strike sliced wide by an FC United defender, while James came agonisingly close to levelling the scores when his effort from the resulting corner rattled the crossbar.
Their persistence paid off in the 62nd minute when Hickman found the net again. Picking up the ball on the left edge of the area, the attacking midfielder sent it across goal and watched as it found its way into the far corner to bring the visitors level at 2-2.
However, Whitby's hopes of taking something from the contest were dealt a blow five minutes from time. Following a corner, Watson fired home on the turn to restore FC United's lead in the 85th minute.
The hosts then put the result beyond doubt three minutes later. With Whitby stretched in search of another equaliser, Le Fondre raced in behind the defence and calmly slotted past Swan to complete his brace and seal a 4-2 victory.
Despite an encouraging fightback and two excellent goals from Hickman, Whitby were left empty-handed after a frustrating, wet afternoon at Broadhurst Park.
The result marks the first defeat of the Lee era, with the Seasiders now looking to regroup and respond in their next fixture at home to Stockton Town on Saturday 31st October (3pm kick-off).
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