Guisborough Town 1-0 West Allotment Celtic

Match Report

Guisborough Town had to dig deep to extend their impressive unbeaten run to six games as they narrowly beat West Allotment Celtic 1-0 at the KGV on Saturday.

The Priorymen started off very strongly in the first 20 minutes, mounting wave after wave of attacks with full back Callum Martin so often prominent down the right.

However, as often has been the case this season, all they had to show for that early first half dominance was a solitary goal – albeit a good one at that taken beautifully by Guisborough front man Sonni Coleman in the 16th minute.

Coleman made space for himself in the West penalty area and shot low and diagonally across visiting keeper Dan Gladstone who clawed desperately at the ball but it clipped the inside of the far right hand post and spun agonisingly (for West!) over the goal-line.

After the boost of this early goal Guisborough continued to swarm forward and put severe pressure on the West goal but a lack of real penetration and clinicality prevented the Priorymen from adding to their slender one-goal lead before half-time.

As the second half progressed following the interval, West gradually came more and more into the game and posed threats to the Guisborough goal without really looking like scoring.

And when they did get a clear sight on goal Guisborough ‘keeper Robert Dean was equal to anything West threw at him and he thoroughly deserved to keep a clean sheet for the third home game in a row.

In stoppage time West’s Guilherme Balthazar could count himself very unfortunate to get a second yellow card for a fairly innocuous-looking challenge.

The match was watched by a half-decent crowd of 257 and the three points for the victory inched Guisborough up one place to eighth position.

MIXED FEELINGS

After the game Guisborough Manager Steve Bell had mixed feelings overall about the result and performance of his team.

Ok, it’s another win and three more welcome points to keep our unbeaten run going – but I felt too many of our players were not at their best today.

We started the game brightly enough but as the game wore on we seemed to lack energy and any real penetration.

That said I thought our back defensive line were very good with Jack Bailey in particular outstanding.

But if we don’t improve and up our game at Heaton Stannington this coming Wednesday then we will be in for a very tough match.

Report: Bill Perfitt
Photos: Dan Clark
Highlights: View highlights of this match