Guisborough Town 1-1 (2-4 Pens) Whitby Town
(WOODSmith Construction North Riding Senior Cup Semi-Final)

Match Report

A gallant Guisborough Town side – missing half their regular players – did themselves, their club and supporters proud before just missing out in a penalty shoot-out following a memorable North Riding Senior Cup Semi-final tie at the KGV on Tuesday.

In front of a bumper crowd of 761 a severely depleted Guisborough were without no fewer than six regular senior players – forwards Kurt Howes, Jason Blackburn and Mason McNeill and defenders Callum Martin, Nick Hood and Dylan McAvoy.

So even before a ball was kicked the odds were stacked up for the Priorymen were up against it facing a strong Whitby Town side – opponents who play their football fully two leagues above Guisborough in the Non-league pyramid.
But that didn’t stop Guisborough pushing their seaside rivals all the way eventually to a penalty shoot-out but, sadly, they were unable to repeat their spot kick heroics of the previous round against another higher league opponent, Scarborough Athletic.

In a fairly even first half, both teams struggled to make any real headway which ended in a goalless stalemate at the interval with relatively few clear-cut chances for either side – apart from a Whitby effort which skimmed the top of the Guisborough bar.

But Whitby grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second half with a goal on the hour mark when central defender Daniel Rowe scored from close range after a goalmouth melee.

This followed a fantastic double save by Guisborough goalkeeper Robert Dean which led to a Whitby corner. The relief in the Seasiders’ side when the goal went in was palpable.

However, despite the setback of conceding that opening goal, Guisborough reacted brilliantly and in fact they proved to be the better side for the rest of the second half.

And the Priorymen deservedly drew level in the 72nd minute when young full-back Lucas Dickinson produced a brilliant run and cross down the right and the ball ran through to Guisborough striker Matty Tymon at the far post who squeezed the ball home superbly to equalise 1-1.

After that there were relatively few further clear-cut opportunities for either side to force a winner.

DRAMATIC OUTCOME?

So on it went to penalties and the stage was set for maybe another dramatic outcome for the Priorymen.

However, history unfortunately wasn’t able to repeat itself and Guisborough went out 4-2 in the penalty shoot-out in which Whitby always seemed to have the edge.

GTFC: ❌ (Pickett) ✅ (Smith) ✅ (Tymon) ❌ (Dean)

WHIT: ✅ (Walker) ✅ (Wheatley) ❌ (Gratton) ✅ (Fewster) ✅ (Shepherd)

Ironically Guisborough goalkeeper Robert Dean – already a legend for his three fantastic penalty shoot-out saves against Scarborough in the previous round – was this time off-target with his own penalty kick, not that anyone in the big crowd blamed him.

After the game Guisborough Manager Steve Bell was quick to praise his depleted side to the hilt.

I was immensely proud of the lads tonight, particularly the younger players and especially 16-year-old Mitch Parkinson and 17-year-old Lucas Dickinson.

With five or six of our more experienced regular players not available, Mitch and Lucas were outstanding and to a man and boy I couldn’t be prouder of the entire team tonight and the character and determination they showed.

In fact the only disappointment on the night was that we ran out of beer in the clubhouse afterwards, joked Steve!

Guisborough ‘keeper Robert ‘Deano’ Dean was philosophical about his own penalty miss. He said after the game:

I was disappointed in the previous round against Scarborough when I was sixth on the list to take a spot kick but of course we never got that far because we won it with our fifth penalty.

So I was very keen to step up to take one this time around against Whitby and I’d watched their keeper Shane Bland dive to his right to save two of our earlier penalties.

So I thought should I go the other way, but I decided to go to Shane’s right again and unfortunately for us he dived the same way again to save it. It was a good save and I can have no complaints.

So the Priorymen can now focus exclusively on trying to reach the end of season play-offs and to that end their next league game is at the KGV again this coming Saturday, 16 March against Seaham Red Star (KO 3pm).

Report: Bill Perfitt
Photos: Dan Clark