Marske United 1-1 Guisborough Town

Match Report

A severely depleted Guisborough Town earned a thoroughly well-deserved draw in a pulsating, drama-filled Teesside derby away to arch rivals Marske United on Saturday.

The Priorymen were without no fewer than EIGHT key members of the squad through a combination of injuries, suspensions and unavailability’s.

After the game Guisborough Manager Steve Connolly summed the situation up perfectly when in his regular post-match interview with Club Director Chris Wood he commented: “Despite missing so many regular players, to come away with a point against a very good, attacking Marske side is something we have to be happy about.”

An incredibly eventful game took an unexpected twist in the 20th minute when match referee Callum Davidson sustained a calf injury and couldn’t continue. After a 15 minute delay the match resumed with lineswoman Lynn Brown took over the referee’s role.

But the real saviour of the game was local referee Archie Parkes who immediately volunteered to step in as emergency linesman and he dashed off to get changed and his return saw the match resume after a 15-minute delay.

For the rest of the first half the play switched from end to end but with neither side able to find the crucial cutting edge – but certainly not for the want of trying.

BRILLIANT VOLLEY

Guisborough winger Kurtis Howes went close twice in two minutes midway through the half – his second effort a brilliant volley which fortunately for Marske went straight to their ‘keeper.

Marske hit back with a fierce drive from star striker Kyran Clark but Guisborough ‘keeper Robert Dean beat it out to safety brilliantly.

A minute from the end of ‘normal’ first half play, the Priorymen caused panic stations in the Marske defence with a Tommy Marron header and a Kurt Howes effort both being blocked.

Then during fully 17 minutes of first-half time added on, Marske were awarded a hotly-disputed free kick on the right hand side of the Guisborough box but Robert Dean sprang to his side’s rescue diving superbly to push away the free kick to safety.

Howes then went close again when he cut in from the left and fired in a low hard shot which Marske ‘keeper Oliver Swan desperately cleared by stretching has leg to boot the ball clear.

This was followed by another great effort from Guisborough defender Tommy Marron who struck a fierce shot from the edge of the Marske penalty area but the ball veered narrowly wide.

That was the last key moment of the extended first half which despite all the chances for both sides finished level and goalless.

Just four minutes into the second half Guisborough took the lead with a very well-taken goal by Howes when he latched on to a Dylan McAvoy throw-in to smartly slot home for 1-0 to the Priorymen.

The game continued to have a really good competitive edge and in the 67th minute Guisborough goalkeeper ‘Deano’ pulled off another brilliant stop to preserve the Priorymen’s slender.

However, on 69 minutes Marske drew level when they were awarded a penalty following a foul inside the Guisborough penalty area. Up stepped home striker McCorie Carmichael to give Deano absolutely no chance from the spot smashing the ball high into the left corner for 1-1.

BRILLIANTLY THWARTED

In the 73rd minute a dangerous Marske counter-attack was brilliantly thwarted by Jack Bailey, normally a midfielder but in this game shoring up the Guisborough back four like a seasoned defender.

Guisborough came desperately close to forcing a winner in 75th minute when defender Marron went up for a corner and climbed high to get in a fantastic header but the ball flashed agonisingly just wide.

Six minutes later Marske came close to getting a winner but Deano pulled off a ‘Gordon Banks’ style save, diving brilliantly to turn a goal-bound Marske effort round the post. It was truly an astounding save from Deano.

But more was to come from the heroic Deano as in the final minute he superbly kept out two dangerous Marske efforts to keep the scores level at 1-1.

Overall, a draw was a fair result following a typically pulsating second half of an incredibly hard-fought game and both sets of players deserve much credit for giving an excellent crowd of 461 some great cut and thrust derby entertainment.

Every Guisborough player contributed greatly to their side’s performance, but those who stood out marginally from their team-mates were goalkeeper Robert Dean, defenders Dylan McAvoy, Tommy Marron and especially Jack Bailey – who was magnificent in his forced defensive role.

Others who caught the eye primarily up front were goalscorer Kurtis Howes and once again Joe Pickett who covered acres of space over the course of the game.

Guisborough Manager Steve Connolly added: “We’ve had to dig deep today. We’ve had a left back in Dylan McAvoy coming back from injury and having to play at right back, we had to have midfielder Jack Bailey playing at centre half. We had another centre half Tommy Marron just returning from a serious injury and other good players were either injured or suspended.

‘TWO CLEAN SHEETS’

“So when you look at your last two games with two clean sheets, you don’t want to make any changes to your back five but we were forced into making three changes, so understandably the boys may have been a wee bit nervous but they’ve gone out and fought hard.

“We had a game plan and the plan worked for the most part and they can see the results but by the end they were a bit tired.

“So given the squad that we had today – and I would have loved to have turned up at Marske United today with a full complement – but we had what we had and the lads did very well.”

Turning to Guisborough’s goalscorer Kurtis Howes, Steve added that despite suffering from injury Kurtis has played pretty much 88/89 minutes of each game since his comeback.

“Kurtis works really hard for the team and he took his goal very well this afternoon, reading the opportunity he was given perfectly before rounding the Marske ‘keeper to score,” said Steve.

Report: Bill Perfitt
Photos: Dan Clark

Here’s a few of the photos from the first half against @MarskeUnitedFC

Photos by @danclark8063 pic.twitter.com/wzZFjC7tnt

— Guisborough Town F.C. (@guistownfc) November 2, 2024