Match Report

Tolu’s terrific thunderbolt earns a crucial 3 points in Town’s title bid

Guisborough Town 1, Marske United 0

(Northern League – Division One)

Guisborough striker Toluwani Osiyemi scores his stunning winner – pictures by Dan Clark.

The one and only thing that mattered by the end of a tough and hotly contested Teesside derby between Guisborough Town and Marske United at the Kevin Edward KGV Stadium on Saturday was who emerged victorious to secure another three precious points.

The points were essential to both teams for very different reasons – the Priorymen needed them to stay in touch with nearest rivals Shildon at the top of the table while at the bottom end Marske were in dire need of at least a point in their bid to stave off relegation.

Crucially, it was a 38th minute spectacular thunderbolt of a shot from the edge of the area by Guisborough’s Man of the Match Toluwani Osiyemi which screeched into the right hand corner of the net which proved enough to earn the Priorymen a vital victory in their first competitive match for three weeks.

BOTH TEAMS A LITTLE ‘RING RUSTY’ AFTER RECENT POSTPONEMENTS

Understandably, both teams were ‘ring rusty’ after the long lay-off because of waterlogged pitches, but as Guisborough Manager Nathan Haslam commented after the game:

“It was a tough afternoon and a typical local derby in difficult conditions – but at the end of the day we found a way to win -and keep another clean sheet which keeps us moving in the right direction, so we’ve got to be thankful for that.

Nathan paid generous tribute to Marske who played above themselves and certainly provided the Priorymen with a stern test in front of another excellent KGV crowd of 522.

“Both teams have had nearly four weeks out of action and this is part and parcel of non-league football and you’ve just got to get on and deal with it.

“You’ve got to give Marske credit in terms of how they set up for the game.  They displayed plenty of energy and endeavor on the day and they’ve got a new manager so they showed some of that ‘new manager bounce.’

“But although they proved decent opposition on the day, I would have liked to have seen us get into better scoring positions and test their ‘keeper more than we did.

“But again it’s non league football and you can’t be at your best every week especially after the long lay-off due to the recent very wet weather.

“Collectively, for us being at the top end of the table we didn’t really create many clear cut chances and in the end we won it with Toluwani’s worldy of a goal and it’s a good sign when you can win a game like this when you’re not at your best.

“TOLU IS A BIG CHARACTER WHO HAS FITTED IN WELL”

“Tolu’s is a big character – I bring him down to games from Newcastle and on a personal level I can say he’s a great lad and he’s fitted very well into the dressing room.

“Out on the football pitch he can be an absolute menace for the opposition.  He’s showed his versatility being able to play on the left or the right, down the middle and even at centre half on occasions when we’ve needed him there.

“He’s never ever let us down but obviously he needs to affect games by scoring goals and he’s doing exactly that at the minute so long may that continue because he’s certainly a big part of what we are trying to achieve at Guisborough Town and he’ll be important to us from now until the end of the season.”

Guisborough now have a 10 day break without a game until they resume with a home game against Penrith on Wednesday, 4 March (KO 7.45) and Nathan commented:  “To be honest I would have preferred to have continued with another game next weekend but we’ll keep busy in training and will work on things as we always do.

“We’ve now got 10 games to go and that will soon be upon us so it’s important that we get our injured players back such as Josh McDonald and Ben Errington who are not too far away now.  We’ll have Tommy Dowson back after his one-match suspension but we’ve still got Joe Ferguson out under suspension but fingers crossed that we are finally injury free and we look forward to the next game against Penrith here are the KGV.”

MANAGER NATHAN WELCOMES NEW SIGNINGS FINN McKITTERICK AND ALEX WALKER

Nathan praised Guisborough goalkeeper Ryan Catterick for dominating the box and showing his customary excellent distribution and he also welcomed two new young signings who have been added to the squad in the past week.

Teenager Finn McKitterick has joined from neighbours Marske and Alex Walker has been signed from Birtley Town and Nathan said both were great signings as the club looks ahead to the run in to the end of the season.

“We’re still going to get injuries and players who dip in and out of form so it’s really important that we maintain our strength in depth.  Alex will give us great aerial presence and can be an absolute rock at the back as he showed us when we played against Birtley earlier in the season.

“Finn’s a young lad and there’s something there to develop with him.  He’s got absolute raw pace and I’m sure both of them will feature at some stage from now until the end of the season,

“I’ve said all along that this is a squad game and we’ve got aspirations to go up with the group of players we currently have.  We obviously want to finish top to gain automatic promotion but Shildon are there pushing us hard but at least we’ve got the play-offs as a back-up just in case we don’t win the title outright.

“But it’s a case of ‘what will be will be’ from now until the end of the season and we’ve just got to keep pressing forward as hard as we possibly can,” added Nathan.

In the game itself, as the Manager himself said there weren’t many clear cut chances as an attritional match was played out between two very determined sides.

For a full rundown of the match action take a look at the Guisborough Town’s excellent X feed on: https://x.com/guistownfc

At yesterday’s match was a YouTube camera crew who travel around the country doing a feature on random Non-league clubs and yesterday they chose Guisborough Town.  Their film should be on YouTube by next Thursday, 26 February – you should be able to find it by searching ‘Football Away Days.  The crew said they had been very impressed with what they had seen at Guisborough and thanked the club for the warm welcome they had received.

Report by Bill Perfitt.