Bishop Auckland 0 – 1 Guisborough Town

Report

An 82nd minute goal from Guisborough Town striker Kieran Cole earned the Priorymen a well-deserved victory at Bishop Auckland on Tuesday night and was sweet revenge for a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of the Bishops on the opening day of the season.

Guisborough Town Manager Steve Bell has been delighted with how his players have bounced back in the last two games against Ryhope CW and now Bishop Auckland following a mini-dip after that glorious Cup win over Marske. After last night’s game he commented:

The lads were very good tonight against Bishop Auckland. The game was a bit frantic at the start but the longer the first half went on the better we became. I told the team at half-time to just keep going and that we would definitely grind the Bishops down. And so it proved and in the end we had just too much for them and the 1-0 scoreline was not less than we deserved.

I’ve been over the moon with the boys’ response to our little dip recently that last two or three games following the Marske win and we have seen loads more energy from the team as a whole with much improved performances against Ryhope and now Bishop Auckland. It’s important that we keep the momentum going into the derby game at Thornaby this coming Saturday and of course for the upcoming North Riding Senior Cup Final against Scarborough Athletic at York City on 4 May.

The winning goal against Bishops came just eight minutes from time when good work down the right flank by Ben Jackson released Kiernan Cole who cut in from the right and got the ball across into the middle of the penalty area. A goalmouth scramble ensured and the ball fall kindly back to Kiernan who slammed the ball into the top left corner of the Bishops’ goal. The Priorymen thought they had gone ahead two minutes after half-time when they had the ball in the net when Ben Jackson did well to go his shot past Nick Liversedge in the Bishops goal but the referee blow for an infringement which had Guisborough players, officials and supporters scratching their heads as to why the goal was disallowed.

Guisborough made most of the running throughout the match and were rarely threatened in front of their own goal by a Bishop Auckland side now managed by former Guisborough manager Chris Hardy, who conceded after the match that he had no complaints and that the Priorymen deserved to win. Apart from Hardy and his Assistant Manager and former Guisborough Manager Gary Forster, the Bishops side last night looked like a ‘Guisborough Old Boys XI’ with no fewer than seven ex-KGV players in their line-up – Nick Liversedge, Paul Roddam, Josh Rowbotham, Bradley Mills, Jamie Poole and Sonni Coleman, with Lee Bythway on the Bishops’ bench.

Report: Bill Perfitt

Highlights: Bishop Auckland FC