Guisborough Under-18s – League Cup winners in dramatic style

Guisborough Town Under-18s pulled off a memorable victory in their League Cup Final against Ferryhill at Bishop Auckland’s ground with a fantastic comeback after going a goal down early on in the first half.

It was a superb performance by Guisborough’s youngsters – some of whom have progressed so well this season that they have made several senior first team appearances between them. They showed tremendous character to lift the Cup after going behind 1-0 just after the half hour mark of an incident-packed match.

Earlier on in the half goalkeeper Will Cowey – who has deservedly become a first team regular this season – was his side’s hero when he saved a penalty in the 25th minute to keep the scores level. The talented ‘keeper then pulled off another great save four minutes after his penalty stop but could do nothing to prevent Ferryhill taking the lead in the 31st minute when Guisborough failed to clear a free kick and the ball was bundled home.

Then three minutes later Guisborough were awarded a penalty and this time it was Ferryhill’s keeper who came to the rescue of his team by saving Alfie Best’s spot kick.

But in the 38th minute Guisborough equalised through Matthew Bage and ten a minute before half-time the young Priorymen got their noses 2-1 in front when Sam Barnard scored, rifling home a great cross from the right.

As the half-time whistle blew with Guisborough a goal to the good it was a case of phew let’s take a breather and recharge the batteries! And Guisborough started the second half where they had left off in the first and Aston Dick extended his side’s lead to 3-1 when he surged into the Ferryhill box and drove home to the sheer delight of his team-mates.

Guisborough almost increased their lead to 4-1 on 65 minutes when great work by Dick on the right ended with a terrific shot by Alfie Best who saw his shot cannon off the Ferryhill bar.

Three minutes later Cowey sprang to Guisborough’s rescue as he rushed out to cut out a Ferryhill through-ball to prevent them from finding a way back into the game. In the end Guisborough ran out comfortable 3-1 winners to lift the Cup.

Another big plus out of the game was Alfie Best being named Man of the Match.