Guisborough Town 5-1 Birtley Town

Match Report

Guisborough Town scored a resounding 5-1 win over Birtley Town at the Kevin Edward KGV Stadium on Wednesday night with outstanding Man-of-the-Match Joe Pickett leading his side to victory with his first-ever Northern League hat-trick.

After the game Guisborough Manager Steve Bell was full of rich praise for his effervescent midfielder after his quite simply superb hat-trick.

It’s a special mention tonight for Joe Pickett, who quite simply was absolutely outstanding in an all-round much-improved team performance which produced a really excellent result. We had not won a game for a couple of weeks so we started tonight’s game wondering where the goals and a victory were going to come from.

But in the end we could easily have scored six or seven which built nicely on the reasonable performance we produced in the derby with Redcar Athletic on Saturday.

I thought it was really good how we reacted so positively after Birtley pulled us back to 2-1 just after midway through the second half, but the lads dealt with the pressure of only being one goal ahead brilliantly and went on to score three more excellent goals.

FIVE-STAR PERFORMANCE!

In addition to Pickett’s five-star performance, Steve also highlighted the contributions of striker Kyle Davis, who scored his first goal for Guisborough, and 18-year-old former Darlington starlet Kenzie Harker, who capped his first full start for the Priorymen with a coolly-taken goal.

“So, overall, very pleased indeed – now the real challenge is to maintain this form for our next game at Easington Colliery on Saturday,” added Steve.

Guisborough dominated the first half but had only one goal to show for it, a real beauty scored by Joe Pickett in the 19th minute when he powered his way into the Birtley box and from a fairly oblique angle smashed the ball brilliantly past the bewildered Birtley ‘keeper for 1-0 to the Priorymen.

In the 36th minute that man Pickett again almost doubled his side’s lead but his goal-bound shot was blocked and it stayed at 1-0 to the interval.

Almost immediately after the re-start there was a wake-up call from the Priorymen as Birtley carved out a good chance on 46 minutes but thankfully for Guisborough the ball was dragged just wide.

Guisborough were indebted to goalkeeper Robert Dean on 50 minutes when he dived bravely at the feet of a Birtley forward to prevent an almost certain goal by the visitors.

Then just a minute later a trade mark Callum Martin floated corner found James Frazer whose towering header sailed just over the Birtley bar.

In the 54th minute Harker, visibly growing into his first full game for Guisborough, produced a delightful turn inside to find Pickett, who for once shot wide.

On 67 minutes it was Pickett again who produced a fantastic volley from 35 yards out – it could have been a goal of the season contender but the Birtley ‘keeper got down well to push the ball for a corner in a last-ditch diving save.

However, Birtley just couldn’t cope with Pickett who produced yet another class move and goal on 69 minutes when he raced on to a great through ball before lashing the ball home just inside the near post for 2-0 to the Priorymen.

But Birtley did pull a goal back in the 72nd minute when George Heslop got up well in the Guisborough penalty area to head home a good cross.

CAL’S SUPERB FREE KICK

That goal brought back unpleasant memories of the last season when in the corresponding fixture at the KGV saw an amazing Birtley fightback from 3-1 down to win 4-3.

On this occasion, though, Guisborough were in no mood to see a repeat of that and in the 79th minute the Priorymen restored their two-goal cushion when skipper Cal Martin whipped in yet another superb free kick and Harker nipped in smartly from behind to half-volley the ball home into the top corner for his first goal for the club.

Then five minutes later recently-married Kyle Davis also got his first goal for the club when he positioned himself superbly to stab the ball home for 4-1 to the rampant Priorymen.

But he biggest cheer of the night from the majority of fans in another good crowd of 254 came two minutes into time added.

That was the big memorable moment when the irrepressible Pickett hit a tremendous low shot which went like an arrow into the far bottom corner of the net to round the scoring off at 5-1 and complete a great night for Guisborough Town and their players, officials and fans.

Report: Bill Perfitt
Photos: Dan Clark

Left to right Guisborough players Jack Bailey, Kyle Davis and Kenzie Harker celebrate a second half goal