Match Report

‘Bad day at the office’ for Guisborough as they crash out of FA Vase against Eccleshill Utd

Eccleshill United 1, Guisborough Town 0

(FA Vase – First Round Qualifying)

Guisborough Town crashed out of the FA Vase at the first time of asking on Saturday when a goal five minutes from time was enough to send Eccleshill United through to the next round.

A desperately disappointed Guisborough Town Manager Nathan Haslam described the match afterwards as a “bad day at the office” for the “toothless” Priorymen.

He commented:  “Ultimately I think we got what we deserved and we’re massively disappointed obviously because the Vase was a competition we wanted to do well in.

“We just weren’t good enough on the day even though we’ve dominated elements of the game and looked a team a level higher than Eccleshill at times.

“But where it matters we were just toothless at the top end of the pitch.  It comes down to being proactive but unfortunately we’re very reactive at times and that’s something we really need to look at.

“But when you’ve got an Eccleshill team who today have tried to grind things out and we’ve not managed to break them down then you’re susceptible to conceding a late goal which is exactly what happened today.

“So fair play to them they’ve done exactly what they needed to do on the day but from our side of things I’m massively disappointed and it’s just not good enough on the day,” said Nathan.

PINPOINTED SEVERAL FACTORS

The Guisborough boss pinpointed several factors which he said were down to Guisborough and which ultimately cost the Priorymen the game.

“We were not able to unlock doors, we made the wrong choices of pass, we weren’t positive enough and we didn’t play on the front foot often enough and in addition we didn’t carry the ball well enough – the list is almost endless as to why we ended up losing this game.

“Sometimes you’ve got to come to places like this in Vase matches where it’s not the greatest pitch in the world but it’s the same for both teams and you’ve just got to grind a result out.

“And the way you do that is by working hard on the opposition, using your head a little bit and timing your runs on first and second balls better – but as I’ve indicate before we were just too reactive and that’s not good enough at any level,” added Nathan.

Looking ahead to the next game which is back in the league at West Allotment Celtic this coming Tuesday, 26 August at Morpeth where West currently play, Nathan added:  “We’ve got rest and recover now and put this performance against Eccleshill to bed and carry on the good form that we’ve shown in the league.”

He concluded:  “We weren’t actually terrible today – it was mainly just the final third where we were found lacking and it just turned out to be a really bad day at the office, which is massively disappointing.

“But we’ve just go to put this behind us and go again next Tuesday against West Allotment Celtic back in the league.”

Eccleshill moved to the Keighley Cougars rugby league ground at the start of this season and the pitch surface was hard and bobbly with the lack of rain in recent weeks and Guisborough appeared to find it difficult to adapt to it being much different to the KGV pitch.

Over the full 90 minutes, however, the Priorymen definitely looked the better side and produced the best attacking football but unfortunately lacked real penetration in the final third.

CLOSE TO BREAKING THE DEADLOCK!

The Priorymen came closest to breaking the deadlock in the 56^th minute when Kurtis Howes hit a blistering shot which smashed against the bar but bounced clear.

But disaster struck for Guisborough in the 85^th minute as Eccleshill took the lead when a cross from the right was headed home from close range by Junior Nasihunu despite a brave attempt by Guisborough ‘keeper to claw the ball clear.

In the dying minutes of the game, Guisborough defender James Frazer got in a brilliant header following a cross into the box but the Eccleshill goalkeeper arched his back to brilliantly tip the ball over for a corner.

That was Guisborough’s last desperate attempt to salvage a draw which would have been followed by a penalty shoot-out.

The attendance was a paltry 60 – with around half of that total comprising Guisborough’s loyal travelling supporters.

Report by Bill Perfitt