A DUBIOUS sending off and an extremely doubtful penalty ruined debutant Michael Yates' splendid performance as City slumped to only their second defeat of the season.

Yates, who only completed his move to the Axe on Friday, was on the scoresheet after just 15 minutes of his debut.

The former Dundee striker had looked lively in the opening stages and, on 15 minutes, he had no hesitation in taking responsibility from the penalty spot after Brian Butler was tripped on the byline.

Yates stepped up and struck the shot to keeper Phil Naisbett's left.

At full stretch, the keeper managed to get half a touch on the ball, but it stayed inside the upright FOR Yates' first goal.

However, a seemingly innocuous deep cross from Lee Ure 10 minutes later undid the City defence and Ben Dixon headed home at the far pot.

Colin Potts could have put City again on 33 minutes with a lob which beat Naisbett but sailed over the bar.

Then came the first of two controversial moments in two minutes which effectively turned the game Whitby's way.

Firstly, Paul Haddow's perfectly timed tackle on Alex Gildea was judged to be a foul, prompting the referee to hand Whitby a penalty, from which David Logan made no mistake.

Acting Blues manager Barrie Stimpson said after the game: "I told the referee at half time that if he was in doubt he should look at people's body language.

None of their players were appealing for the penalty and none of ours were expecting it to be given."

Within a minute, it went from bad to worse as Farrell Kilbane received a second booking.

Kilbane had, according to his manager, shouted out to himself in frustration after failing to get his head on a cross, but the referee still showed him both cards and ordered him off.

The second half saw Yates mark his debut with a classy equaliser.

The half was just three minutes old when Yates lost his marker and peeled away at he far post.

He met Colin Potts' inch perfect cross with a powerful, acrobatic volley which left Naisbett helpless.

City looked set to go on and claim all three points but, on 59 minutes, a loose backpass by Kenny Mayers allowed Lee Ure in.

He danced past Mark Thornley to score into an open goal.

City dominated for the rest of the 90 minutes, with the dangerous crossing of Potts leaving Whitby's defence struggling to clear their lines.

But it wasn' t enough, and the Dolly Blues failed to get on the scoresheet again.

Stimpson said afterwards: "I'm disappointed with the result, but I was pleased with the performance.

It was as good as we have played in a month.

"We could easily have drawn the midweek game with Bishop Auckland and grabbed a draw today, but one win and a defeat earns you more points than two draws."