Guisborough Town 0 – 4 North Shields

Match Report

A four-goal home defeat sounds like a real hammering but, although they were well beaten in the end, a spirited Guisborough Town kept battling to the end of one of those games when absolutely nothing went right for the luckless Priorymen.

In fact, it was Guisborough who made most of the running in the first 20 minutes but they just couldn’t force the breakthrough goal which, who knows, may have completely changed the course of the game in favour of the Priorymen.

Guisborough Town Manager Steve Bell commented:

I told the players after the game that we were effectively beaten by one North Shields individual player, their Number 9 Dan Wilson. We just couldn’t get anywhere near him for the whole 90 minutes. That said, quite simply we were not good enough overall.

Guisborough started the game very positively and inside the first 20 minutes they created several good chances with some incisive attacking movements towards the North Shields goal.

James Beauchamp, Guisborough’s recent signing from Darlington, was prominent and after only five minutes he came mightily close to giving his side the lead when he got in a superb looping header but it just cleared Shields’ bar.

Three minutes later Guisborough midfielder Keelan Wright-Simpson joined the attack and sent in a terrific shot from around the edge of the penalty area but it cleared the Shields bar once again.

In the 10th minute hard-working Guisborough midfielder JJ Bartliff got into the Shields penalty area and got in another good header but it went a yard or so over the bar.

On 20 minutes, with an eager Guisborough side piling on the pressure, Beauchamp had a great chance in front of goal but he couldn’t quite get fully hold of his shot and the ball squirmed agonisingly along the Shields six yard box before Shields ‘keeper Marshall pounced on the loose ball.

CLOSE RANGE

After 23 minutes and completely against the run of play, Shields broke away and a melee ensued in the Guisborough goalmouth and Shields striker Paul Van-Zanduliet poked the ball home from close range to give Guisborough match announcer Chris Annis a real challenge pronouncing his name over the PA system!

Less than a minute later Guisborough suffered a setback when loan signing Joey Hope, who the day before had had his loan period extended for another month, had to leave the pitch with a muscle strain to be substituted by George Waites.

In the 34th minute Shields doubled their lead to 2-0 in controversial fashion when a Guisborough defender was adjudged to have pushed a visiting attacker in the penalty area and the referee somewhat harshly pointed to the spot. Dan Wilson converted the penalty into the right hand corner, just beaten Guisborough ‘keeper Robert Dean’s despairing dive.

Three minutes later in the 37th minute Guisborough had a great chance to pull a goal back before the break but a superbly flighted cross from Callum Marton from the right was clicked narrowly wide by JJ Bartliff.

That just about summed up a frustrating half for Guisborough and it was very tough on the Priorymen to find themselves 2-0 down at the break.

Undeterred, Guisborough made a big effort in the first 15 minutes of the second half to force a breakthrough but firstly Ben Jackson wriggled his way into the Shields penalty area on 56 minutes and managed to get in a snap shot which the visiting ‘keeper managed to turn around the post for a corner.

The corner kick was flighted over beautifully into the Shields box and when it looked certain that Guisborough would score nobody could get a proper connection on the ball and the danger was cleared.

In the 62nd minute there was an almost unbelievable miss from Guisborough as JJ Bartliff put over a superb cross and although Beauchamp did well to get his foot to the ball it agonisingly struck the Shields woodwork on the angle of bar and post and bounced clear. So unlucky for the Priorymen.

FIERCE SHOT

To rub salt in the wounds North Shields almost immediately advanced up the pitch on Guisborough’s goal and the ball fell kindly to the feet of star Shields striker Wilson who lashed home a fierce shot for his second goal and 3-0 to the Robins.

In the 70th minute with Guisborough still battling on gamely, Beauchamp cleverly made space for himself and fired in a ferocious shot but the Shields ‘keeper flung himself to his right to fingertip the ball for another corner to the Priorymen.

Five minutes later Shields got a fourth goal which just about summed up Guisborough’s bad luck all afternoon when ‘keeper Dean made a brilliant save but following a scramble after the ball went loose substitute defender James Dillon in trying to clear unfortunately put the ball into his own net for a final somewhat flattering scoreline of 4-0 to the Robins.

There was a healthy KGV attendance of 261 and the deserved victory for Shields – their ninth in 10 games during October – kept them well in the title hunt at third in the table while Guisborough languish in the bottom half in 15th place.

Report: Bill Perfitt