Match Report

Priorymen’s proud 16-match unbeaten run comes to an end as badly-depleted Guisborough go down 3-1 at Birtley

Birtley Town 3, Guisborough Town 1

(Northern League – Division One)

League leaders Guisborough Town suffered a shock 3-1 defeat at mid-table Birtley on Tuesday night, handicapped by a severely depleted line-up.

The unexpected loss ended a superb unbeaten run of 16 matches for the Priorymen, during which they notched up 14 victories to see them surge up the table.

But against Birtley – who themselves were on a good run of four successive wins and two draws – Guisborough struggled to really impose themselves on a very heavy pitch.

There was an explosive start to the match with three goals in the opening 11 minutes, but it was Birtley who capitalised on a sluggish Guisborough start to find themselves 2-1 down.

Birtley took the lead in the fifth minute when James Proctor scored direct from a corner with a curling low shot which went in at the far post.

In the ninth minute Guisborough hauled themselves level when Matty Willshaw slid the ball left to winger Tolu Osiyemi and he beat the Birtley ‘keeper for 1-1.

Then just two minutes later Birtley regained the lead when Alexander Walker headed home following a corner for 2-1 to the home side and that’s how the score remained up to half-time.

After the break Birtley scored their third and decisive goal when a free kick into the Guisborough box was flicked on by Nick Marley for Liam Thear to poke home for 3-1 and despite a lot of incident that’s how it stayed to the final whistle.

There was a rarely seen development in the 72^nd minute when Guisborough goalkeeper Ryan Catterick was sin-binned for showing strong dissent with Tolu Osiyemi taking over between the sticks.

Guisborough Manager Nathan Haslam – who before the game had warned that Birtley were in excellent form – commented: “Obviously very disappointed but fair play to Birtley. We were massively depleted tonight but the team we put out should have been capable to achieving a result.

“This was the most difficult pitch we’ve played on so far this season but you’ve got to play to the conditions and I think it’s fair to say that Birtley played the conditions a lot better than us.

“We struggled all night long on direct balls coming into the box, especially from set-pieces. We weren’t dominant enough and uncharacteristically for us all three of their goals stemmed from balls in the air.”

But the Guisborough gaffer was philosophical about this first defeat in 16 league games, adding: “The day when we were going to get beaten was always going to come. The important thing now is how we react from this. Tonight was just a step too far with some of our more experienced players missing.”

Looking ahead to this coming Saturday, 24 January when Guisborough host Penrith at the Kevin Edward KGV Stadium, Nathan commented: “We’ll have a lot of our regular players back and I think we’ll be fine on Saturday at home again and our fans behind us.”

Report by Bill Perfitt.