Carlisle City 0-2 Guisborough Town

Match Report

Guisborough Town bounced back tremendously well from the recent disappointment of that shock home defeat to bottom-of-the-table Seaham Red Star when they convincingly beat Northern League newcomers Carlisle City 2-0 in Cumbria on Saturday.

After a goalless first half in which Guisborough enjoyed the majority of play without finding enough of a real cutting edge, the Priorymen really tore into Carlisle after the interval.

And the only surprise was that it took them until the 72ndand 82nd minutes to translate their significant superiority into goals from skipper JJ Bartliff and striker Jason Blackburn respectively.

After the game Guisborough Manager Steve Bell declared himself “very happy” and “over the moon” at the manner of the victory by his highly impressive side.

“Coming to Carlisle is a trip not many teams in the Northern League fancy and in fact up to before our wintoday they had not been beaten at home in the league.

“So after our recent tepid performance against Seaham Red Star, coming to a tough place like Carlisle was probably the best kind of challenge we could have had.

“Before the match I told the players to go out and to be on the front foot, be aggressive and really compete with Carlisle and – do you know what – to a man that’s exactly what they did.

“It was a bit of a dog fight in the first 25 minutes but then we settled and in the second half in particular we dominated the game physically and technically the lads were very, very good today – from a technical point of view it was one of our best performances of the season.

“Overall, then, the lads were excellent today and I was very, very pleased with their performance,” added a clearly delighted Steve.

The game started fairly sloppily with both teams struggling to find any real rhythm in the first 20 minutes but gradually Guisborough got on top and good play down the left by O’Sullivan and Miller on 30 minutes raised hopes for the Priorymen but unfortunately their good work came to nothing.

In the 39th minute a good cross by Cann from the right was met by Kiernan but his effort was saved.

STRONG START

The Priorymen made a strong start right from the off in the second half and Kiernan twice went close on 56 and 63 minutes as he headed over the bar and then saw another effort saved by the Carlisle ‘keeper.

In the 65th minute a great strike by Blackburn went just wide of the post and then on 72 minutes Guisborough’s constant pressure finally paid off with a superb volley by skipper Bartliff following a Miller cross screeching into the top corner for 1-0 to the Priorymen.

Ten minutes later Guisborough doubled their lead when Blackford latched on to a flick forward and squeezed the ball between the Carlisle ‘keeper’s legs for 2-0.

Guisborough almost had a third in the 89th minute when an unbelievable ball in behind from Bartliff to Blackburn forced a save from the Carlisle ‘keeper to leave the final score at 2-0.

The win lifted Guisborough three places up the table to sixth and with at least two games in hand on most teams around them the Priorymen’s title push looks well and truly on again.

Watch Guisborough Manager Steve Bell’s full post-match interview with our Club General Manager Chris Wood below.

Finally, a word of thanks to young Tom Jeffels who was making his own impressive ‘debut’ at Carlisle yesterday providing all our match Twitter updates. Well played Tom!

Meanwhile, next up for Guisborough is another away trip – thankfully much shorter this time – to third-placed Newton Aycliffe on Tuesday, 20 September (please note earlier kick off time of 7.30pm).

Guisborough have an injury doubt over mercurial winger Ben Jackson who has a troublesome knee niggle but on the plus side the other winger Jack Blackford will be available again on his return from holiday.

Guisborough boss Bell added: “Aycliffe is always a tough place to go to and although we still have a few injury niggles we will go there full of confidence and with a game plan that we know will give any team a run for their money!”

Report: Bill Perfitt

Photos by Dan Clark. Tweets by Tom Jeffels. Thank you for the hospitality. Thank you to the travelling Town faithful for your support. Come on the Priorymen! pic.twitter.com/LJNB6Ga23e

— Guisborough Town F.C. (@guistownfc) September 17, 2022