Newcastle Benfield 0 – 2 Guisborough Town

Match Report

Guisborough Town produced probably their best performance of the season to completely dominate and outplay their opponents and gain a thoroughly well-deserved 2-0 win at Newcastle Benfield on Wednesday.

After a first half in which they had forced no fewer than 11 corners, but to no avail, Guisborough finally made their superiority tell seven minutes into the second half. Left winger Ben Jackson collected the ball just outside the left hand corner of the Benfield penalty area and he crashed home a beautiful low shot just inside the left post.

The goal was no less than the lively and impressive Priorymen deserved after their almost complete domination of Benfield.

The first half saw Guisborough centre forward Louis Johnson go close with two headers and a shot while James Rowe also headed wide and then over the bar from two corners. Then a minute before half-time striker Steve Roberts stormed forward but pulled his shot narrowly wide from about 18 yards out.

The one disappointment after such an enterprising and attacking display was that Guisborough had nothing to show for their efforts as the half-time whistle blew.

There was a slightly longer half-time interval than planned because the match referee sustained an injury and was unable to continue. The senior linesman took over as referee and fortunately there was a Benfield supporters in the ground who is a qualified linesman and he hurried home for his kit and returned to run the line.

After Jackson’s opening goal, Guisborough visibly grew in confidence and were passing the ball around superbly creating excellent chances and winning virtually all the second balls.

Johnson bundled the ball over the Benfield goal-line in the 55th minute but he was rightly penalised for handling the ball in the process.

Double Their Lead

Guisborough continued to control the game and on 75 minutes a speedy counter-attack saw Roberts storming through on the Benfield goal once again and he got in a strong goal-bound shot which the Benfield ‘keeper managed to parry away for a corner.

From the resultant corner Guisborough should have doubled their lead to 2-0 but centre back Nick Hood saw his first shot blocked right on the line and then followed up but agonisingly hit the rebound just wide.

Guisborough did finally and deservedly double their lead in the 82nd minute with a fine individual goal from Roberts. He chased a long ball down the right flank, cut in and from the acutest of angles fired in a great shot which went over the goal-line despite the desperate efforts of a Benfield defender to keep the ball out.

Collectively, every single Guisborough man played his part in this hugely impressive win. Their passing movements were a delight to watch and their determined play throughout made their Tyneside opponents look distinctly second best in front of a crowd of 121.

James Risbrough made his second debut for Guisborough and looked very assured playing in an unaccustomed role at the back with. Charlie Marshall absent again with his unlucky injury-hit season continuing. Recent loan signing from Stockton Keelan Wright-Simpson continued to impress while in midfield JJ Bartliff controlled things superbly. Up from Steve Roberts and Ben Jackson looked back to their best and caused Benfield problems all night.

After the game a delighted Guisborough Manager Steve Bell commented:

This was a great performance from the lads, the kind that I always knew they were capable of. Right from the first minute they were on the front foot but again, though, going in 0-0 at half-time definitely worried me as I thought we should have been 2-0 up at the very least.

But to be fair to the boys they came out for the second half and looked even better than the first and if the match had finished 5-0 to us I don’t think that would have flattered us. But the important thing now is that we back that excellent performance up and build on it for the next game at Whitley Bay on Saturday.

Report: Bill Perfitt