Guisborough Town 2-1 Carlisle City

Match Report

Guisborough Town extended their brilliant unbeaten run to 11 games against Carlisle City at the KGV on Saturday – and the Priorymen were indebted to two players in particular who made outstanding contributions to the Priorymen’s 2-1 victory.

Hero No 1 was big bustling striker Jason Blackburn, who scored two really excellent goals in either half to set up the win.

Meanwhile, Hero No 2 was Guisborough’s superb goalkeeper Robert Dean who followed up his recent penalty shootout heroics against Scarborough by saving a last-gasp Carlisle spot kick to prevent the Cumbrian side grabbing a dramatic draw.

This workmanlike win pushed the Priorymen up another place in the league table to eight, and with games in hand on most of the teams around them they now have earned themselves a realistic chance of a top four finish.

‘RIGHT IN THE MIX’

After the match Guisborough Manager Steve Bell conceded:

I didn’t think we were very good today.  I thought too many of our lads were slightly off their usual game.

It was a big game to win though and the three points keeps us right in the mix among the top teams. Deano has been outstanding for a while now to be fair, and his fantastic last minute penalty save won the game for us. It’s another three important points and we now move on to out next league match this coming Tuesday against Sunderland RCA.

The first 20 minutes from kick-off was fairly even with Carlisle demonstrating at times why they are flying so high in the table.

But it was the Priorymen who took the lead – slightly against the run of play – in the 21st minute when Blackburn cut in from the left and hit a hard, low strike which zoomed diagonally across the Carlisle box and nestled beautifully in the bottom far right corner of the net.

Goalscorer Blackburn then became goal-saver in the 37th minute when he was superbly alert to clear a loose ball which ricocheted off the Guisborough post following a dangerous Carlisle attack.

The game had become rather scrappy with neither side asserting any consistent dominance butGuisborough were indebted in the 38th minute when ‘keeper Dean pulled off a sensational save from a point blank range Carlisle header to preserve the Priorymen’s single goal half-time lead.

The second half continued in somewhat untidy fashion with a lot of fouls by either side, some of which were rightly pulled up by the referee but more were inexplicably allowed to go unpunished.

However, Carlisle drew level in the 71st minute when big striker Robert McCartney scored following a frantic scramble in the Guisborough goalmouth.

Just three minutes later Blackburn got his second match of the game when Matty Tymon played the big striker through and he hit a great shot with his weaker right foot which nestled sweetly in the back of the Carlisle net.

Blackburn came very close to notching what would have been a superb hat-trick in the 88th minute.  

Then, just as it looked like Guisborough were seeing out the remaining time, young 17-year-old Guisborough-born substitute Lucas Dickinson made a rash tackle to give away a clear penalty on 95 minutes.

Up stepped Carlisle striker McCartney to drive the ball hard towards the left corner of the Guisborough goal but yet again Dean dived superbly to save brilliantly, sparking more shouts of ‘Deano, Deano-o-o’ from the majority of the fans in the crowd of 248.

Guisborough will be seeking to make it 12 games on the run without defeat next Tuesday, 27 February at Sunderland RCA (KO 7.30).

Report: Bill Perfitt
Photos: Dan Clark