Guisborough Town 3-0 West Auckland Town

Match Report

Guisborough Town ended 2023 in decisive fashion as they powered their way up to sixth in the table when they overcame third-placed high-flyers West Auckland Town 3-0 at the KGV Stadium the day before New Year’s Eve.

Ultimately, a 3-0 victory for the Priorymen in an incident-packed game was impressive and fully deserved, even though West were down to 10 men when centre back Gary Brown was sent off after only 17 minutes for elbowing a Guisborough player.

After the game a cock-a-hoop Guisborough Manager Steve Bell commented

This was a brilliant three points for us today against a really good West Auckland team in terrible conditions, to be fair to both sides.

They had a lad sent midway through the first half which obviously helped us. But in all honesty I thought we were playing the game and the difficult conditions even before that West red card. I thought our 2-0 half-time lead was about right and after that it was just about keeping our composure which we did impressively, so the final score of 3-0 felt like the right result.

We now look forward to playing at Bishop Auckland next Saturday, 6 January – I can’t wait!

Regardless of the final result, first off it has to be said that both sets of players deserve the highest credit and praise for the ultra-competitive commitment they showed in such extremely challenging cold, blustery and wet conditions.

The Priorymen started the game confidently and the first real flashpoint of the game came in the 17th minute when West centre half Gary Brown was sent off for allegedly elbowing an opponent.

Up to that point he had been guilty of some blatant pushes which went unpunished but his clash with a Guisborough player was spotted by a linesman who intervened to help the referee with his red card decision.

Brown was clearly incensed with the red card and could receive an even harsher punishment than three matches for the aggressive way he protested to the linesman who had consulted the referee.

Following the dismissal, as often can be the case in such circumstances, Guisborough struggled to really impose themselves on 10-man West, but in the last five minutes of the first half they suddenly found themselves 2-0 up.

EXCELLENT ADDITION

Firstly, on 41 minutes, recent new signing Matty Tymon scored a brilliantly well-taken goal when he burst into the West penalty area and got to within a few yards of the dead ball line before shooting home beautifully from a very acute angle.

It was Tymon’s second goal in three games since signing from Teesside neighbours Redcar Athletic and on the evidence so far he looks an excellent addition to the Guisborough squad – exhibiting a strong presence up front, showing great hold-up play and a keen eye for goal.

Then, virtually on half-time, Guisborough won a corner and – not for the first time this season – the admirable central defender came up and coolly nodded home to send the Priorymen in 2-0 up at half-time.

For virtually the whole of the second half play was fairly even despite Guisborough’s one-man advantage and to be fair despite being a man light West played some impressive passing football without making the breakthrough, thanks for some superb Guisborough defending and a couple of excellent saves from home ‘keeper Robert Dean.

Ten minutes from time West were reduced to nine men through to the final whistle when forward Luke Bailey was ‘sin binned’ for the last 10 minutes of the game for speaking out of turn.

The Priorymen then punished the depleted West side when substitute Ben Cummins capitalized on a mistake by West’s former Guisborough ‘keeper Nick Liversedge to tuck the ball home neatly for a 3-0 convincing final score.

Throughout the Guisborough team there were 8+ performances with every member of the team playing their full part in a memorable win.

The match was watched by a crowd of 290, which was an excellent turnout considering the atrocious weather conditions and Guisborough Town would like to thank all the fans for their superb support.

After the game, there was an unfortunate medical emergency in the West changing room when a visiting player suffered what was thought to be some kind of seizure and he was rushed to hospital.

‘MASSIVE THANKS’

Later, West Auckland expressed ‘massive thanks’ to Assistant Guisborough Manager Paul Crager and a lady called Yvonne Wood who responded amazingly well to assist the stricken West player.

Following this excellent victory, Guisborough will now confidently face their next match at current league leaders Bishop Auckland on Saturday, 6 January 2024 (KO 3pm).

Report: Bill Perfitt