Guisborough Town 1-1 Marske United (4-5 pens)

Match Report

Guisborough Town produced a terrific performance but agonisingly came within minutes of beating local rivals Marske United in the annual John Butterfield Memorial Trophy match at the KGV Stadium on Tuesday.

The Priorymen produced their best pre-season performance to date with a display full of pride, passion and promise against rivals from two leagues above them – but they fell narrowly just short in the end. Leading 1-0 through an opportunist goal from Tyrone O’Neil in the 79th minute, Guisborough looked almost home and dry until Marske striker Eddie Church dashed their hopes with an 89th minute equaliser.

Then in an exciting but tense penalty shoot-out, Marske just edged it netting all their spot kicks with Guisborough missing just one of theirs. The winner’s Trophy was, fittingly, presented by John Butterfield’s daughter Leanne, who used to go to matches all over the North East and beyond with her beloved father, a true KGV legend.

After the game Guisborough Manager Steve Bell commented:

This was a good test against a side of the calibre of Marske United.

I thought we probably just about deserved to win but we’re still only in pre-season and it was Marske’s first run-out against our third and it probably showed on the night. It was a really good performance from us, keeping possession well against good opposition and we ended up being rewarded 10 minutes from time with a good poacher’s goal from Tyrone O’Neil.

We now moved on to our next game in the Peter Morris Memorial at Thornaby on Saturday where we will have a few players absent on holiday.

There’s only just over a fortnight to go until the start of the league season at West Auckland Town on Saturday, 29 July and everything we do between now and then is geared totally towards focussing on that first league match.