Guisborough Town 3-2 Kendal Town

Match Report

With two excellently-taken goals already under his belt, it looked odds-on that Guisborough’s hugely talented winger Kurtis Howes would win the Man of the Match award following a pulsating game against Kendal Town at the Kevin Edward KGV Stadium on Saturday.

But not one person in a KGV crowd of 293 could begrudge the accolade actually going to Guisborough’s amazing goalkeeper, Robert Dean.

‘Deano’ as he is affectionately called by the KGV faithful pulled off a string of breath-taking second half saves to clinch a famous 3-2 victory for the Priorymen.

The dramatic win made it four games without defeat for Guisborough who have now climbed almost dizzily up to sixth place in the Northern League Division One table – just one spot outside of the play-offs. What made the victory all the more praise-worthy was that Kendal had won their previous two games by 4-0.

Before the start of the game, Kendal were one place above the Priorymen but this win – Guisborough’s first over the Cumbrians for 21 years before yesterday – meant the Priorymen leapfrogged their opponents (thanks to Guisborough’s match announcer Chris Annis and his dad Phil for that statistical gem!).

‘We were ruthless!’

And another of the most satisfying aspects of this game – the fourth already between the two teams this season – was that it was Guisborough’s first win over Kendal this season.

After the match Guisborough Town Manager Steve Connolly said: “I’m absolutely delighted with the win. Even though we didn’t have that many chances, we took them well and we were ruthless – and I loved that about the team today.

“Towards the end, fair play to Kendal they threw absolutely everything at us and the boys scrapped and fought right to the end to make sure Kendal didn’t get a an equaliser.

“In particular, Deano in goal was outstanding in the latter part of the game and James Frazer made a brilliant last-ditch tackle. All in all it was a hell of a win, especially since Kendal are a very good side and have been in great form recently.

“Deano has had a difficult week this week, but he’s turned up today and played superbly as always. In my opinion he’s the best goalkeeper in the whole league.”

Steve also was full of praise for two-goal Kurtis Howes. He added: “When Kurtis is running at defenders and cutting in like he does – that’s what he’s so brilliant at. Kyle Davis also took his goal brilliantly too so overall we’re very pleased indeed with the team performance,” added a highly satisfied Steve.

However, the game couldn’t have got off to a worst start for the Priorymen when Kendal took the lead after only six minutes. The normally super-reliable James Frazer sold ‘Deano’ short with a miss-hit attempted back pass and James Bailey capitalised gleefully to shoot home into an empty net for 1-0 to the Cumbrians.

However, Guisborough hit back just four minutes later when winger Kurtis Howes latched on to a perfectly-weighted Jason Blackburn pass. He then surged forwards towards the Kendal by-line and hit a speculative low drive which took the Kendal ‘keeper by surprise and went clean through his legs for 1-1.

BRILLIANT TURNAROUND

Then in the 22nd minute Guisborough completed a brilliant turnaround when Kyle Davis was played through and composed himself superbly before hitting an unstoppable low shot into the bottom left corner for 2-1 to the Priorymen!

Just six minutes later Guisborough came within a whisker of going 3-1 up when the magnificent Frazer got his head to a corner and steered it downwards into the turf. It bounced up heading towards the top corner but a Kendal defender got a slight touch with his head and the ball hit the bar and was cleared.

So 2-1 to the Priorymen was how it stayed until the half-time break. In the second half Kendal came out with renewed determination but it was Guisborough who increased their lead to 3-1 in the 64th minute when a long ball from Deano found Howes via a poor Kendal touch and Kurt feinted cleverly past a defender before rounding the ‘keeper to score a memorable goal.

Almost for the rest of the game thereafter Guisborough were indebted to their extraordinary goal-stopping ‘keeper Deano, who absolutely excelled with a string of superb saves as Kendal really put the Priorymen under the cosh with wave after wave of attacks.

In the 73rd minute he saved a goal-bound shot with his foot and then on 77 minutes came his save of the match he somehow stretched to claw the ball away after a Kendal shot had hit the bar. A truly extraordinary save by Deano!

A minute later Howes came close to scoring what would have been a brilliant hat-trick when he cut inside and shot for goal but the ball took a deflection and landed safely into the Kendal ‘keeper’s grateful hands.

In the 86th minute Kendal were awarded what looked like a legitimate penalty and up stepped Thomas Kilifin and (just for once!) Deano went the wrong way and suddenly Kendal were within one goal of the Priorymen to set up a tense finale.

Right at the end of normal time Frazer saved Guisborough with a brilliant last-ditch tackle while in the four minutes added on Deano and the Guisborough defence just managed to keep Kendal at bay to secure a famous victory.

Report: Bill Perfitt
Photos: Dan Clark

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— Guisborough Town F.C. (@guistownfc) November 9, 2024

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— Guisborough Town F.C. (@guistownfc) November 9, 2024