Newcastle Benfield 1-2 Guisborough Town

Match Report

Gutsy Guisborough Town produced a strong second half comeback to haul themselves firmly back into contention for the end of season play offs when they beat Newcastle Benfield 2-1 on Saturday.

After faltering in recent weeks with no wins in their last three league outings, it was imperative for the Priorymen to get back to winning ways at Benfield – but their chances of that suffered a serious set-back when Benfield grabbed the lead virtually on the stroke of half-time.

The match was marred throughout by a troublesome strong diagonal cross-
wind and certainly both teams struggled to get to grips with the elements and play generally was disjointed and quite poor at times, particularly in an untidy first half.

But after conceding that 45th minute Benfield goal – a stunning drive into the top left hand corner by winger Jay Errington – the Priorymen came with renewed purpose right from the start of the second half, no doubt with Manager Steve Bell’s critical encouragement ringing in their ears!

After the game, Steve commented:

The game proved very challenging on a very windy day and played on a tough, drying out pitch.

I have to admit we weren’t very good once again in the first half as had been the case at Heaton Stannington in midweek and I certainly let the lads know about it.

But to their credit they dug deep in the second half and two good goals from Matty Tymon ultimately won us the game. It turned out to be one of those scrappy and not great performances but one that if you win it can prove so valuable come the end of the season. We’ll see about that by the third week in April!

After that frustrating first half and the shock of conceding just before half-time, the Priorymen’s all-round play visibly improved and increased confidence clearly flowed from that.

With striker Jason Blackburn withdrawn through at half-time, Guisborough made a very astute tactical switch by giving defender James Frazer a pretty much roving role up front, one he has previously performed with distinction.

It proved a great move as he caused a lot of problems to the Benfield defence with his strong physical presence – he looks rather gangling but his speed is deceptively fast and he asked a lot of questions of the Benfield defence.

SMART MOVE

Another smart move was bringing on the young but fast-maturing James Boucher to play down the right wing – and both he and Frazer linked up well, each playing important parts in the brace of goals bagged by Matty Tymon in the 67th and 76th minutes.

Tymon’s first goal which brought a welcome equaliser came when Boucher’s persistence earned a corner and he floated it across beautifully into Benfield box. The ball bobbled about before it fell kindly to Tymon at head height about eight yards out and he made no mistake nodding it home into an empty net.

Tymon’s second goal was a beauty – Frazer played a massive part getting the ball to Tymon just inside the penalty area and he turned smartly and hit a low shot just inside Benfield’s right hand post. It was a real goal-poacher’s effort! And was his 11th goal for Guisborough in only the three months since he joined the Priorymen from Redcar Athletic towards
the end of December last year.

Apart from his proven goal-scoring prowess, Tymon has impressed greatly with his ball-shielding and hold up play and moreover his work-rate has been second to none. The crowd at Benfield was 196.

So the Priorymen have climbed back to fifth place in the table and thus have regained the last play-off spot in the table. However, there are several teams just above or below them breathing down their necks – principally West Auckland Town, Birtley Town, Heaton Stannington and Carlisle City,

Guisborough’s next opponents on Good Friday, 29 March (KO 3pm). So a season of ups and downs is building nicely to a potentially great climax in the next four weeks and with only six league games to go for the Priorymen it is all the play for.

Report: Bill Perfitt
Photos: Dan Clark