Match Report

Manager Nathan applauds his players for right reaction to midweek defeat at West Allotment

Guisborough Town 1, Whickham 0

(Northern League – Division One)

A solitary 27^th minute goal from a wonderfully well-worked move was enough to earn Guisborough Town a precious victory over lowly Whickham at the Kevin Edward KGV Stadium on Saturday.

Although it wasn’t the most convincing of performances from the Priorymen, the vast majority of the fans in another good crowd of 304 probably couldn’t care less because any win was welcome – especially after the desperately disappointing 1-0 midweek defeat at West Allotment Celtic.

Guisborough’s goal was a thing of real beauty – it came from a short corner by Josh MacDonald to Joe Ferguson who played a one-two back to Josh who crossed perfectly to the back post for Jack Bailey to head perfectly into the roof of the Whickham net.

Seven minutes later Guisborough almost doubled their lead when an Elliott Beddow goal-bound shot was brilliantly saved by Whickham ‘keeper Matty Cassap who used his knee to block the ball which bounced to safety.

After the game Guisborough Manager Nathan Haslam said he was absolutely delighted with the win which he said was a great reaction to the midweek defeat at West Allotment.

He commented:  “We had to work on things after the trip to West Allotment on Tuesday so we got the lads in on Thursday night and we implemented that in the game today, especially in the first half.

“In the first half we were very dominant and if it wasn’t for their goalkeeper who pulled off some outstanding saves otherwise we would have gone in more comfortable than we were at half-time.

“At one–nil up you always think there’s going to be a reaction and there was as they came out of the blocks and threw everything at us but we withstood the pressure, kept a clean sheet and gained three very important points.

“The really pleasing thing about today’s game is that it was chalk and cheese compared to Tuesday so we asked the players for improvement and that’s what they gave us so I applaud them for that,” added Nathan.

Guisborough never looked in danger of not winning this game and in truth a poor Whickham side who languish second to bottom of the league never really looked like forcing a draw or indeed anything out of the game.

The Man of the Match was chosen as club captain Ben Errington, making a welcome return from injury, and along with his fellow defenders they were solid and in no mood to concede a goal throughout.

Meanwhile, the three richly deserved points the Priorymen earned catapulted them up three places in the table from eighth to fifth – and they have games in hand on most of the teams around them, so they are handily placed to climb even higher.

Guisborough have no midweek game this coming week and their next match is another welcome home game against Kendal Town next Saturday, 6 September at the Kevin Edward KGV Stadium.  Kendal currently sit just one place below the Priorymen so a keen battle is anticipated.

Report by Bill Perfitt