Match Report

Brave Guisborough show defensive resilience to hold Redcar Athletic and earn FA Cup replay

Guisborough Town 0, Redcar Athletic 0

(Emirates FA Cup – Preliminary Round)

Gallant Guisborough Town showed tremendous determination and wholehearted effort and commitment to hold in-form Redcar Athletic to a goal-less draw in their eagerly-anticipated FA Cup clash at the Kevin Edward KGV Stadium on Saturday.

For the Priorymen to go toe to toe against a very strong, higher level Redcar Athletic side and become the first side to stop Redcar from scoring in their first five competitive games was a real achievement for Guisborough.

And the draw was fully deserved by the weakened Priorymen, who fought courageously from start to finish to earn a much-deserved draw in front of a bumper crowd of 567 and take the tie to a replay at Redcar Athletic next Wednesday, 20 August (KO 7.45pm).

Guisborough Manager Nathan Haslam said afterwards: “This was a tough game and the lads have worked very, very hard game and earned a result which keeps us in the hat for the draw for the next round of the FA Cup, which is an achievement in itself.

“I thought Redcar dominated possession, which we were expecting, but we went with a low block which clearly worked as we kept a clean sheet. But where we let ourselves down, if you can say that, is that our quality wasn’t quite there in the final third to really hurt Redcar on the counter – which is what our game plan was today.

‘LADS BELIEVING IN WHAT WE’RE ASKING OF THEM’

“So the tactical side of it worked but we didn’t execute it from an attacking perspective but playing against a team from a higher league who have had a good start to their season we’ve got to take some positives going into the replay at their place on Wednesday, “ said Nathan.

He continued: “I give credit to the boys for keeping their shape and believing in what in what we’re asking them to do. Redcar have so many good players but if you defend properly it makes it hard for them to break us down and we made it that way.

“They did hit the woodwork and we rode our luck a little bit at times but that’s football for you and I’m very happy indeed for the way we contained them from a low block perspective.

“Also, when you take into account the fact that we had some key players missing with a makeshift centre half pairing with Ben Errington still not fully fit and then we lost Joe Ferguson just before kick-off with a back injury.

“Once again we had a 16-year-old in Tommy Dowson starting so we are facing lots of adversities and challenges that we’ve got to overcome but with the depth of squad that we have lads are coming in which is giving us several square pegs in round holes against some very good teams but they are acquitting themselves very well indeed.

“Youngsters like Muzzy (Abdullahi) had a very solid game playing a more defensive role that he’s not used to so I can’t praise him enough when you look at things on reflection.”

Guisborough midfielder Joe Pickett finally made his comeback against the team he suffered such a bad injury last season, and Nathan welcomed this, saying “We kind of threw Joe on there with the low numbers we have available and I thought he did really well with the 30 minutes or so that he played and the fans certainly gave him a decent round of applause.

“For me as a manager, I’ve been waiting for Joe to come back for a long time because he will give us a different dimension and hopefully he’ll be good to go for the replay on Wednesday,” concluded Nathan.

The match kicked off in an almost carnival atmosphere with a bumper crowd and even Guisborough’s mascot ‘Kind George’ joined in the proceedings, thrilling the young kids in the crowd. As the match kicked off Redcar had no fewer than SEVEN former Guisborough players in: John Howard, Nathan Guru, Joe Bartliff and Curtis Round as starters and Chay Liddle, Ollie Cann and Mitch Parkinson on the bench.

As Guisborough’s manager Nathan Haslam summarised, the game proved to be a very hard challenge for the Priorymen but defensively they held their nerve despite two scares when Round and Adam Boyes hit the woodwork with second half efforts.

When Redcar threatened at other times they found Guisborough goalkeeper in supremely alert form from start to finish, and he was the worthy winner of the Guisborough Brewery sponsored Man of the Match Award.

There was a nice touch for Guisborough Assistant Coach Gary Forster when some of the Redcar fans who clearly still hold him in affection from Gary’s time as manager there when they struck up the familiar “Gary, Gary give us a wave” and a beaming Gary duly obliged!

Guisborough Town Chairman Andy Bell was delighted by how the detailed logistical planning that went into the game paid off so well, commenting: “A big thank you to everyone who was involved yesterday in what turned out to be a fantastic showpiece for our club.

“We really showed what we are about, giving so many people a great match-day experience. I know everyone put their all into what they needed to do today and their efforts really are appreciated – it was a true off-the-field team effort.

“We should all be very proud of ourselves,” added a delighted Andy.

Meanwhile, a mention of the next upcoming ‘Sportsman’s Evening’ at Guisborough Town starring former Liverpool legend Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock (see details in poster below):

Report by Bill Perfitt