Guisborough Town 0 – 2 Ashington

Match Report

Guisborough Town slumped to a disappointing 0-2 defeat at home to Ashington at the KGV Stadium on Wednesday night.

A goal in either half was enough to deservedly win all three points for the Northumbrian visitors and but for another brilliant penalty save by Guisborough ‘keeper Robbie Dean and several missed gilt-edged chances by Ashington the scoreline could have been more embarrassing.

To make matters worse for the Priorymen they lost midfield general and skipper JJ Bartliff with a serious leg injury in the first half and even before a ball was kicked they were without star striker Louis Johnson who picked up a bad injury at Penrith.

After the game Guisborough Town Manager Steve Bell commented:

I was bitterly disappointed with the performance from the lads tonight. In short, we were very poor indeed and I told them so in no uncertain terms at half-time. But the improvement I was hoping for after the interval just never materialised as Ashington continued to dominate the game overall. That said, we were unlucky to be without our star striker Louis Johnson, who was still injured following the Penrith game.

And to compound matters, losing our midfield dynamo JJ Bartliff in the first half didn’t help our cause on bit. Still, we go again on Saturday at home to Seaham Red Star and I’ll be looking for a big all-round improvement from the boys.

Guisborough made the worst possible start when they conceded the first goal after just 11 minutes when Guisborough were sliced open down their right flank and Dean Briggs cut in and placed his shop perfectly beyond the reach of ‘keeper Robert Dean into the far right hand corner of the net for 1-0 to the visitors.

Weaving Run!

Ten minutes later Guisborough winger Ben Jackson made a great weaving run into the Ashington penalty area but his great ball across a crowded box somehow evaded everybody.

Guisborough defender James Dillon made a brilliant tackle in the 25th minute to save his side from falling further behind then two minutes later a good shot from Brad Plant was well saved by Karl Dryden in the Ashington goal.

On the half hour mark Guisborough suffered a cruel blow when skipper and midfield general JJ Bartliff sustained a painful leg injury and he sadly limped off and took no further part in proceedings.

Just before half-time Ashington almost doubled their lead when Briggs put a peach of a cross over but Ryan McGorrigan just couldn’t steer the ball into the beckoning Guisborough goal. Then seconds later a Lewis Green shot was saved by Dryden to preserve Ashington’s one-goal lead.

Just three minutes into the second half Ashington doubled their lead to 2-0 with a slightly fortunate goal as Guisborough ‘keeper Dean saw his attempted clearance outside the box ricochet off Ashington winger Paul Robinson and he followed up the ball to just a couple of yards from the by-line and managed to squeeze the ball home from a very acute angle.

Five minutes later the lively Brad Plant had a good shot saved by the Ashington ‘keeper.

In the 66th minute Ashington had the chance to score a third when they were awarded a penalty but Guisborough ‘keeper Dean pulled off a terrific diving save at the left post to keep the score at 2-0.

Dean’s save was almost a carbon copy of the penalty he kept out against Bishop Auckland and he has now not conceded for three penalties in a row, although admittedly one against Sunderland RCA was well wide of the post anyway.

Overall, this was a very disappointing performance from the Priorymen, although in mitigation they were very unlucky to lose Bartliff to injury only a third of the way into the game and even before a ball was kicked they were without key striker Louis Johnson who hadn’t recovered from a nasty injury sustained at Penrith.

The attendance was another healthy 271 and the match was kindly sponsored by Coatham Coaches and the Match Ball sponsors were Morgan Autosalvage so many thanks to both those businesses for their support.

Guisborough’s next game is another home fixture against Seaham Red Star at the KGV on Saturday, 14 August (KO 3pm).

Report: Bill Perfitt