Guisborough Town 2-3 Boro Rangers

Match Report

Guisborough Town missed a golden opportunity to put themselves right in the thick of the play-off places when they were beaten 3-2 at home to Teesside rivals Boro Rangers on Boxing Day.

In a topsy-turvy game, the pendulum finally swung decisively the way of Rangers when a rashly-conceded penalty seven minutes from time secured all three points for the visitors. The defeat also ended the Priorymen’s impressive run of 11 unbeaten games after a game in which three out of the five goals scored came from the penalty spot.

The first spot kick was awarded to Rangers after only 10 minutes when a wild swinging leg in the box resulted in the referee awarding Boro a clear-cut penalty and striker Stuart Rose converted easily to notch the first of a festive hat-trick. The Guisborough players were clearly struggling coping with the bright, low sun shining directly into their eyes but by midway through the first half the Priorymen managed to recover their composure and started to string a few decent moves together.

The Priorymen twice came close to equalising in the 28th and 41st minutes when centre back James Frazer yet again showed his aerial prowess with two towering headers but both were cleared off the line with last-ditch Rangers blocks.

Then, with half-time looming, Rangers got their second goal very much against the run of play when the Guisborough defence went AWOL and Rose sprinted clear to beat the onrushing Robert Dean with a well-placed side-footed shot into the far right corner for 2-0 to the visitors.

In the second half Guisborough produced their best football of the game as they dominated Rangers almost from start to finish and within 18 minutes of the re-start the Priorymen found themselves deservedly level at 2-2.

NO MISTAKE FROM REBOUND

First young Alex Payne pulled a goal back on the hour mark when he swept forward and saw his first effort deflected on to the post but he followed up instantly to make no mistake from the rebound for 1-2.

And just three minutes later winger Joe Pickett cleverly drew a Rangers foul in the penalty area for another obvious spot kick which Pickett himself took and he despatched the ball superbly into the corner of the net. It was Pickett’s fifth goal in the last four games.

Just when it seemed Guisborough were looking most likely to go on and win the game, they were rocked back in the 83rd minute when Rangers were awarded their second penalty of the game.

For once Guisborough ‘keeper Dean – who had made a brilliant save just three minutes earlier – went from hero to zero as he came rushing out of his goal to try and clear a long ball into the far right corner of the penalty area and Rose went down under Dean’s challenge and the referee immediately pointed to the spot.

To be fair, there seemed minimal contact from Dean but it looked like he had made a rare error of judgement racing out of his goal to get to the ball first. Nevertheless, up stepped Rose again to score into the corner and complete probably the easiest hat-trick he will ever score to make the final score 2-3 to the Boro boys.

The victory for Rangers puts them well into the mix not just for a play-off place but for the title itself with only one point separating them from Shildon at the top, Redcar Athletic in second place and Blyth Town third, followed by Boro themselves. In contrast, Guisborough slipped to eighth place, although a play-off spot is still not out of the question.

After the game Guisborough Town Manager Steve Connolly commented:

We’re obviously very disappointed by the defeat – we know Boro Rangers are a good side and have been in really good form in their last four games before the one against us today.

The first half just wasn’t good enough from us and the boys knew that and were disappointed to go into the break 2-0 down. We gifted them their first two goals in the first half and from then on it was always going to be an uphill battle. But in the second half I was really happy with what the lads did in terms of getting back into the game and it looked like we were the ones who would go on to win the game.

But if you look at the game as a whole then ultimately the way that we started is why we lost the match, They were more clinical than us and took the chances that came their way. We had more chances ourselves but just didn’t make them count, although we were unlucky with two or three efforts cleared off the line today.

One hot topic of conversation among many in the healthy Boxing Day crowd of 365 after the game was the part the extremely bright, low sun in the sky which seemed to have on influencing the play, particularly in the first half when Guisborough were facing the dazzling sunshine.

Steve Connolly was asked whether Guisborough had won the toss and made a mistake in choosing to play directly into the sunlight.

We won the toss and chose to play into the sun is my understanding. We leave those decisions to the players and the captain and let’s face it I think it cost us the first goal by Rangers. You could see the players actually of both sides struggling to cope with the dazzle effect from the low-lying sun.

Looking ahead to Guisborough’s next game in just two days’ time at home to Tow Law Town tomorrow (Saturday, 28 December, KO 3pm), Steve Connolly added:

Look, we’ve had a good chat after the Boro Rangers game and as I’ve said the lads were very disappointed – they’ve set a very good standard recently as shown by the fact that their last defeat was nine and a half weeks ago. So this result against Boro Rangers certainly hurts.

But I think the attitude from the lads will be ‘let’s go on another run’ and they’ve shown enough character over the past weeks to go into the game against Tow Law with the mentality of being determined to go out and get the next win under their belts.

Report: Bill Perfitt