Match Report

‘A game of two halves’ is Manager’s verdict as Avenue’s experience tells

Guisborough Town 1, Bradford Park Avenue 3

(Northern Premier League East Division)

Guisborough Town learned a harsh lesson of the new realities in the Northern Premier League East Division as they were beaten 3-1 by Bradford Park Avenue at the Kevin Edward KGV Stadium on Saturday.

The Priorymen deserved their slender 1-0 half-time lead as they picked up where they had left from an impressive 1-1 midweek draw at Heaton Stannington.

Guisborough got off to the best possible flying start against Bradford at the KGV when the diminutive striker Matty Willshaw leapt higher than anyone else in the 5th minute to head home a superb Joe Ferguson cross for 1-0 to the Priorymen.

It was a dream start for Guisborough and for the next half hour the Priorymen looked by far the better side – but couldn’t add to their early lead.

In the last 10 minutes of the first half Bradford began to assert themselves more and more and Guisborough were relieved to get to half-time with their lead intact.

In the second half Bradford noticeably moved up a gear or two and in the 63rd minute drew level when they won a penalty and Marcus Carver stepped up to blast the spot kick into the roof of the net for 1-1.

Four minutes later Carver scored his second, scrambling the ball over the Guisborough goal-line after a cross from the right for 2-1 to the visitors.

And Avenue got their third on 77 minutes when a move down their left flank ended with winger Louie Chorlton having the simplest of tasks to tap home for 3-1 and that’s how it stayed to the final whistle.

After the game, a philosophical Guisborough Manager Nathan Haslam commented: “It was a game of two halves – I think in the first half we were excellent but in the second half we went back out and basically didn’t do what we did in the first half.

“The quality and experience of Bradford has won them the day really. In key moments in a 15-minute period midway through the second half they’ve exploited our naivety really with three goals.

“For me, I’m not going to have a real go at my boys but they need to learn quickly from this. Ultimately, if we can reproduce what we did in the first half over the full 90 minutes to show just how good a team we really are then we can move forward. We are a good outfit without a doubt,” added Nathan.

He praised striker Matty Willshaw for his early goal. “He’s a good player and gets into good positions and for his goal it resulted in a great delivery from a set-piece by Fergie (Joe Ferguson). We need to show more moving forward in the final third. But like I say, we’re still acclimatising to the higher level we’re now playing at and we’ll continue to work constantly to improve.”

The attendance was another healthy 385.

Guisborough’s next two games are both at home, firstly next Wednesday, 19 August (KO 7.45pm) against old adversaries Ashington and then next Saturday, 22 August at home against Hallam FC (KO 3pm).

On the Ashington game, Nathan added: “I’m looking forward to it. It’s a chance for us to put today behind us and try and advance ourselves as the season progresses.”

Report by Bill Perfitt.

You can download our Official Matchday Programme from the game here.