Match Report

Pulsating Priorymen keep title hopes firmly on track against Railwaymen of Shildon!

Guisborough Town 4 Shildon 3

(Northern League – Division One)

Like an unstoppable steamroller flattening all before them, Guisborough Town opened up a six-point lead at the top of the table with a 4-3 victory over nearest rivals Shildon in a truly pulsating seven-goal thriller at the Kevin Edward KGV Stadium on Saturday.

This unbelievably breath-taking game had literally everything – three penalties, two sendings-off and some superbly taken goals by both sides.  The Railwaymen of Shildon played their part, but in the end their indiscipline was their undoing – while the Priorymen kept their heads and stayed focussed on what in the end was a truly memorable victory.

Guisborough Manager Nathan Haslam summed it up after the game when he commented:  “What a game, what an advert for the Northern League.”  He also highlighted his player’s tremendous spirit and character – more of Nathan’s thoughts later in this match report.

With expectations high for both sides – the Priorymen were rocked within the first 13 minutes of the game when they found themselves 2-0 down.

Many sides would have capitulated under such dire circumstances, but this Guisborough team is made of stern stuff these days and by half-time the Priorymen had roared back level at 2-2.

First, Guisborough winger Toluwani Osiyemi rose majestically in the 15th minute in the Shildon penalty area to head home a pinpoint Josh MacDonald cross to the far post to pull a goal back to 2-1.

And even more drama followed seven minutes into added time at the end of a thrilling first half when Guisborough were rightly awarded a penalty and the ultra-cool Kurtis Howes converted the spot kick with typically relative ease to send the teams in all-square 2-2 at the interval.

Earlier in the first half, Shildon has surged into a quick-fire 2-0 lead when first classy winger Joe Posthill hit an unstoppable shot in the sixth minute to put the Railwaymen ahead.  Then just seven minutes later Shildon doubled their lead to 2-0 when Thomas Price fired home.

Earlier in the first half Shildon were reduced to 10 men after just half an hour when Samuel Hodgson was red-carded after a strange incident when he appeared to simulate an injury in an apparent bid to get Guisborough’s ‘Tolu’ sent off – but then saw red himself!

It was a significant turning point in the game, with Shildon visibly appearing to run out of steam later on in the second half as fatigue inevitably set in.

Before that, though, just three minutes into the second half there was more controversy when Guisborough goalkeeper Ryan Catterick was somewhat harshly adjudged to have impeded a Shildon forward and the 10-man Railwaymen went 3-2 up when Ciaran Banks scored from the spot.

Despite having another mountain to climb the Priorymen showed real spirit and on 70 minutes Guisborough striker Matty Willshaw pulled the scores level at 3-3 with a trademark shimmy and shot which arrowed brilliantly into the net just inside the far left hand post.

Guisborough were now really smelling blood and three minutes later Kurtis Howes surpassed birthday boy Willshaw’s fine effort with an absolute screamer into the corner – his 13th goal of the season to make it 4-3.  And that’s how it stayed but there was more controversy in the final 20 minutes.  Kurtis was presented with the Guisborough Brewery-sponsored Man of the Match Award by Chris Wood after the game.

Shildon’s indiscipline resurfaced as Jon Weirs was sent off for appearing to strongly dispute a ‘sin bin’ card.

Then in the fifth minute of time added on Guisborough were awarded a penalty and although Willshaw appeared to score from the spot it was disallowed because the Guisborough striker had stopped noticeably in his run up – now an offence under Northern League rules.  Phew!!!

MANAGER NATHAN HASLAM’S POST-MATCH COMMENTS

In an excellent, incisive post-match interview with talented Guisborough Director Chris Wood, Nathan Haslam praised his side’s resilience and character but stressed that he would work hard in midweek training to keep his side grounded and focussed for the rest of the season.

“At 18 games in we’re still one match short of reaching the half-way stage so there’s still an awful lot of games to come and a lot of points to play for – so I keep reminding the players of that.

“We started very, very slowly today and that was really disappointing but having gone 2-0 down we showed real character to pull it back to 2-2 at half-time, albeit they were down to 10 men barely a third of the way into the game.

“Then we contributed to our own downfall by conceding a penalty just after half-time which they scored to go 3-2 up.  But the lads showed great character to come back with two great finishes.  We could see that Shildon had had the stuffing knocked out of them when we got it to 3-3 and we know ourselves how that feels.

“But we capitalised on the situation even though it’s hard against 10 men when they get everyone behind the ball and you literally are facing a brick wall.  But we knew we had to go down the outside to break Shildon down and we got some joy from that.

“Yes, we showed a lot of character and what I call emotional intelligence and that’s linked to lots of hard work and great solidarity as a team too,” added Nathan.

Chris Wood asked the Manager about his views on the excellent condition of the KGV pitch and Nathan was glowing in his response about what he described as the “unbelievable” work of volunteers like Don Robinson, Dennis Wheeler and the grounds team.

“This pitch is without a doubt one of the best in the league.  Every time I come to the ground I tell Don what an unbelievable job he and the team are doing with the pitch. It’s the kind of surface we like to play on and myself and the team really appreciate it.”

Nathan once again commented on the big crowd of 466 against Shildon and he thanked the supporters, saying it was really nice to see.

“The attendances here have been consistently high this season and we’ve got another big crowd today.  But it’s not just this which is pleasing this is a great club with lots going on both on and off the pitch and it’s important that we keep on entertaining them like we have all season so far.”

Looking ahead to next Saturday’s home game on 15 November against Easington Colliery Nathan said that would be another tough game with Easington on a good run at the moment.  “I say it every week and sound like a parrot but they’re all hard games at the moment but we love playing at home, so hopefully we’ll get another good crowd in and keep the winning run going,” concluded Nathan.

Report by Bill Perfitt