Bishop Auckland 2-2 Guisborough Town

Match Report

Guisborough Town battled back bravely from 2-0 down to take a well-deserved point at high-flying Bishop Auckland on Tuesday night.

The Priorymen found themselves 2-0 down after just 12 minutes with goals from Danni Lay (5 mins) and their former striker Louis Johnson (12 mins). But just before half-time Guisborough skipper JJ Bartliff gave his side hope by pulling a goal back and it was Bartliff who went on to score the equaliser in the 57th minute to earn his side an excellent point.

After the game Guisborough Manager Steve Bell commented:

In the end it was a good point but that said we were really poor in the first half hour of the game and in truth we could have been more than two goals down. We were half a yard short all over the pitch. Then we got a little foothold in the game with JJ pulling a goal back just before half-time.

There were one or two critical words spoken at half-time and in the second half we came out a miles better team and for the next 25 minutes we were the decidedly better side and deserved our equaliser. After that play became more even but in the final 10-15 minutes we were hanging on but we defended brilliantly for a well-earned point.

Earlier, the first half hour of the game had killed us but the lads rallied well and I was pleased with the character they showed. Roll on Saturday when we play another of the league’s top teams as Ashington come to the KGV.

This latest draw extends Guisborough’s current unbeaten run to five games and maintains their fifth position in the table.

As the game against Bishops kicked off they included three former Guisborough players in their line-up – goalkeeper Ryan Catterick, left back James Risbrough and striker Louis Johnson with former Town Manager Chris Hardy now at the helm there, plus former Guisborough defender Leon Carling is Hardy’s Number 2.

It took Bishops only five minutes to surge in front as they won a free kick and the ball was floated over by Gott for Danni Lay to head home. Then the home side doubled their lead on 12 minutes when Giles cut into the Guisborough box and crossed low for Johnson to score at the near post.

The game became more even as the Priorymen came more into things and in the 45th minute Guisborough got their reward as Captain Bartliff did brilliantly on the edge of the Bishops box to smash the ball home left-footed into the bottom corner for 2-1. In the second half Guisborough continued to press and on 57 minutes Cole Kiernan did brilliantly to hold the ball up and release fellow striker Mikey McGee to take the ball round Bishop’s ‘keeper Catterick and find Bartliff who scored to make it 2-2.

Guisborough did well to hang on to the draw with some great defending including some fantastic work by Callum Martin and James Frazer in the 90th minute to keep the score at 2-2. The attendance was 294. Next up for the Priorymen are another high-flying side Ashington who come to the KGV Stadium on Saturday, 11 February for what promises to be an epic encounter!