Match Report

Guisborough Manager Nathan Haslam lavishes rich praise as his youthful side just edged out of NRSC by Scarborough!

Scarborough Athletic 3, Guisborough Town 2

(North Riding Senior Cup – played at Bridlington Town)

Guisborough Town Manager Nathan Haslam was full of praise for his makeshift and youthful side as they put up a tremendous performance on Tuesday night in the North Riding Senior Cup against a strong Scarborough Athletic side.

Despite an unlucky 3-2 defeat to a last-gasp Scarborough goal in the 96^th minute, an immensely proud Nathan commented afterwards:  “We’ve had to come to Bridlington with a majorly patched up side, we’ve got players away working and we’ve had to make this long midweek trip with four young players we signed up only yesterday, all of them just 17 and 18 years old.

“If truth be told, we only had four regular senior team players starting so in terms of the performance tonight I’ve got to give each and every one of my players a lot of credit, especially the young lads who have really shown a maturity today beyond their ages.

“Even then we were really unlucky to lose.  In the end a more physical Scarborough side have just managed to see it through with goals from two crosses including one right at the end which was two minutes over the additional time indicated by the referee.”

But the Guisborough boss remained as philosophical as ever, as he continued:  “This is football and it’s how it goes against you sometimes.  But tonight isn’t really about the result it was more about coming here and playing the game to the best of our ability in spite of the handicaps we were under – and the lads have definitely over-exceeded on my expectations.

“In summary, having to field three 17-year-olds and two 18-year-olds against a Scarborough team fully three levels higher than us and fielding their senior team presents a massive challenge.  So as I’ve indicated I can’t praise the team enough for the performance they have put in.

“In the areas where games are won and lost we’ve matched Scarborough and had some great passages of play and we looked like a very good team especially the first half when we’ve gone in 2-1 up with two very good goals.

“What just demonstrates the magnitude of our performance is that even big ‘Tolu’ (Toluwani Osiyemi) who is normally a striker had to fill in at centre half and was also captain for the night.  I think he enjoyed himself in that role!

“But Scarborough had more height and physicality than us and made the most of their crosses into the box which was our undoing really.  But it is what it is and we move on,” added Nathan.

The Priorymen got off to a great start in the game by taking the lead on 10 minutes with a truly outrageous goal from the irrepressible striker Matty Willshaw.  He received a good pass from Elliott Beddow, sees the Scarborough ‘keeper off his line and inside his own half Matty hits an unbelievable strike over the ‘keeper’s head and it sailed into the back of the net for 1-0 to Guisborough.

On the half-hour mark Guisborough so narrowly missed out on going 2-0 ahead when Beddow latched on to the ball and smashed a brilliant shot towards the top right hand quarter but it flashed literally millimetres wide!

Then four minutes later Scarborough equalised but just two minutes after that Guisborough regained the lead.  Alfie Doherty put over a free kick to the back post where Willshaw did well to put the ball back into the danger area and Tommy Dowson managed to get across his marker to rifle the ball home.

It was the perfect way for teenager Tommy to celebrate the superb achievement of making it through to the next round of the England Schools trials no less, so many congratulations to Tommy on that.

In the second half of the game Guisborough continued to exert pressure on Scarborough with good play from Muzzy Abdullahi and Thomas Birtles who both tested the Boro goal.

Then in the 77^th minute Scarborough pulled it back to 2-2 when a free kick was whipped into the Guisborough box and Luca Coalville was there to head home at the back post.

With the game in the balance the healthy Guisborough contingent in a crowd of 242 who had braved the long journey to the game switched from Scarborough to Bridlington were as surprised as anyone as to why four minutes extra had been signalled to be played.

And agonisingly for the Priorymen the superior height of the Scarborough players resulted in a winner from a cross which was a minute or two beyond the additional allotted time.  Just heart-breaking for Guisborough after such a valiant display overall.

Guisborough now turn their attentions back to the league this coming Saturday, 15 November when they are home at the Kevin Edward KGV Stadium to Easington Colliery (KO 3pm).

Nathan Haslam added:  “Looking forward to the game, it will be yet another tough one as they’re in form and on the crest of a wave at the minute with a good run of results.

“But we know what we’re going to get with Easington – they’re a good team on a good run at the minute with some good guys in their set up.  But we’ll just focus on ourselves and they know they’ve got to come to our place and overcome a good team in ourselves who are also on a good run.

“Hopefully we can keep the good run that we’ve built up and maintain our excellent recent form but I’m not going to pretend anything other than it will be another very tough game,” concluded Nathan.

Report by Bill Perfitt