The breeze blowing down the length of the pitch at Whitby gave Grantham a chance after the break, but resilient defending by the home side denied Grantham a share of the points.

"We were poor for the first half." Said Paul Rawden. "We came out second half and gave it a good go, but couldn't get the reward we worked for."

The first half hour saw Whitby press Grantham hard, but struggle to create clear chances. Connor Smith had a shot deflected wide for the home side and Ross Barrows went close for Grantham after he and Jordan Adebayo-Smith robbed the Whitby defence on the half way line.

Two goals in five minutes undid the Gingerbreads shortly before half-time. Twice the Gingerbreads conceded from corners. After 34minutes, a low delivery was turned on towards the back post where Daniel Rowe was unmarked to open the scoring.

Five minutes later Grantham had a two goal mountain to climb. A similar corner was turned on by Alex White for Ashley Coffey to blast home from six yards out.

After the break Grantham looked a better team. They took the game to Whitby from the first minute of the half. Chris Dawson got on the end of a good Grantham move, but Jack Norton saved well.

Grantham's pressure told after 56 minutes. The Gingerbreads had kept pressure on the home side and when they failed to clear their lines, Ross Barrows pounced to fire Grantham back into the game.

Whitby were given a great chance to put the game to bed on the hour mark. Omar Ali and Coffey tangled inside the penalty area and both players went down. Referee Mr Westgate decided the Grantham man had committed a foul and awarded the home side a penalty. Sam Andrews went to his right to save Dale Hopson's spot kick.

Grantham maintained their pressure, but could not break down a well organised Whitby defence. Strong appeals for a penalty were turned down in the 73rd minute when Jack McGovern appeared to be pushed inside the penalty area. This time Mr Westgate turned down the appeal.

Michael Tweed and Jordan Adebayo-Smith had chances for Grantham as the Gingerbreads pushed for a point, but ultimately came up short.