Match Report

Near-perfect performance from the Priorymen stretches lead at top of table to nine points!

Boro Rangers 0, Guisborough Town 4

(Ebac Northern League – Division One)

A near-perfect performance by Guisborough Town saw them sweep past Boro Rangers at Phoenix Park on Saturday to extend their lead at the top of the Ebac Northern League Division One to nine points.

There were two changes from the previous week’s game against Easington Colliery, with team Captain Ben Errington and striker Elliott Beddow returning to the Priorymen’s starting line-up.

The hosts had only conceded three goals in their last six games and sat sixth in the table, just outside the playoff spots, but from the off it was Guisborough on the front foot as they immediately cut through the Boro defence and created goal-scoring opportunities.

With just two minutes on the clock, defender James Frazer played a great ball through to the strong and pacey Toluwani Osiyemi, who turned inside and struck the ball goalwards.  But former Guisborough goalkeeper Jack Norton was on hand to push it away.

Moments later, Fraser was involved again as great passing play by Town saw him receive the ball 30 yards out. He took everyone by surprise when he fired powerfully into the far corner for 1-0 to the Priorymen.

Three minutes later, Osiyemi caused further problems for the Boro Rangers defence as he bullied the home centre half to turn him inside out, but a great save from Norton denied him once again.

On 14 minutes in, Jack Bailey doubled the Guisborough lead. Errington played a great ball over the top and Bailey timed his run to perfection to smash the ball under Norton’s legs.

Norton then delayed a third goal for Guisborough as he made two good saves to thwart Osiyemi and Kurtis Howes.

Excellent intricate build-up play between Dylan McAvoy, Howes, Beddow and Thomas Birtles led to a great ball being played to Osiyemi who coolly went round the ‘keeper and slotted home to open up a three goal cushion.

On the stroke of half-time, Guisborough almost made it four as Osiyemi turned the centre half inside out again and thundered a right footed rocket, which cannoned off the frame of the goal.

Home keeper Norton, injured whilst preventing a fourth Guisborough goal, was replaced at half time by Nathan Liddell.

Liddell’s first action was to pick the ball out of the net on the hour after skipper Ben Errington toe-poked home from a teasing Alfie Doherty corner, sealing the contest.

Guisborough then professionally and comfortably saw the rest of the game out and were never meaningfully threatened. Town nearly added a fifth when Beddow’s long distance piledriver went narrowly wide.

Catterick’s first and only save came in the 86th minute as he made a smart stop to maintain his clean sheet.

The attendance was a healthy 338 – swelled significantly by Guisborough’s travelling faithful fans.

After the game, Guisborough Town Assistant Manager Gary Forster declared he was ‘Over the Moon’ with the performance and result against Boro Rangers.

He commented:  “I’m delighted with this convincing win – Boro Rangers are a good side and are up there towards the top end of the table.  Coming here is never ever easy – and to be fair when we played them at our place earlier in the season they gave us one of our toughest tests.

“Both sides had key players missing today but we’ve come here and done a very professional job and I’m over the moon with it to be honest.

“To get this game put to bed and in the manner that we did it is very satisfying and we took our chances and kept a clean sheet so hopefully that can continue for us.

“We’ve just got to keep chalking up the wins – it won’t be easy because we know there will be lots of twists and turns.  But we’re not looking at the sides around us – we spoke about that with the lads and they know we’ve got to continue doing our job every Saturday right through to the rest of the season.

“We’ve got West Allotment at home next Saturday and they got a shock win against us earlier in the season so we know that any side can beat any team in this league,” continued Gary.

He said it was pleasing at 4-0 against Boro Rangers to get every player including the substitutes on to the field – apart from fellow Assistant Manager (Gary Wood who was named on the subs’ bench).

Gary (Forster) said somewhat tongue in cheek:: “Maybe we’ll save Gary Wood for a big game in the future!”

Looking ahead to the West Allotment game Gary concluded:  “It’ll be a tough test against West Allotment and we’ve just got to prepare and go into the game in the same way that we have been doing all season so far.  We went into that game at West Allotment thinking we would win because of their lowly position in the league and they beat us – so that’s a lesson that we have definitely learned without a doubt.”

Report by James Cowan