Seaham Red Star 1-1 Guisborough Town

Match Report

A last-minute goal by bottom-of-the-table Seaham Red Star denied what would have been an excellent away win by Guisborough Town on Saturday.

The match turned out to be a classic ‘game of two halves’ with the Priorymen dominating the first half but only going into the interval one goal up.

Then in the second half Seaham, with a stronger wind at their backs, made most of the running but Guisborough defended doggedly and looked like taking all three points before they equalised virtually at the end of normal time. It was a real sickener for Guisborough’s players, management and their faithful travelling fans who all thought their wholehearted efforts were about to be rewarded with three points until that last-gasp Seaham strike.

The Priorymen started the first half in impressive style and took the game to Seaham right from the kick-off with skipper JJ Bartliff prominent in all the goalmouth action in the first 20 minutes. In the 10th Shabs Mohammed got in a good pass behind the Seaham defence to Bartliff but his cross back across the Seaham penalty area was intercepted.

Two minutes later Bartliff shot wide following a Guisborough corner then on 19 minutes it was Bartliff again in the thick of the action as the latched on to a ball over the top but his clever chip over the Seaham ‘keeper was cleared close to the goal-line. But just before the half-hour mark all of Guisborough’s almost non-stop pressure finally paid off with a goal of real quality fashioned between Joe Scaife-Wheatley and Town’s leading scorer Cole Kiernan.

Scaife-Wheatley was the architect with a brilliant defence-splitting pass through to Kiernan who in the blink of an eye controlled the ball beautifully and smashed the ball home superbly for his 13th goal of the season. Kiernan almost doubled his and Guisborough’s tally in the 32nd minute when he beat a Seaham defender with ease but his attempt to lob the home ‘keeper was cleared.

It took until the last five minutes of the first half for Seaham pose their first real threats on the Guisborough goal when ‘keeper Robert Dean saved well from the left then following a 42nd minute corner Thomas Bott crashed a fierce shot into the body of the brave Jordan Fielding. Guisborough had dominated this first half but they must have been rueing once again the chances that were not taken.

After the interval Guisborough came under sustained pressure for periods from Seaham and it was primarily a combination of some good goalkeeping from Dean and some excellent defending particularly by Callum Martin that preserved the Priorymen’s slender one-goal lead.
But Guisborough had their moments in attack too and Ben Jackson was dangerous on more than one occasion getting in behind the Seaham defence but ultimately nothing materialised where it mattered in front of goal.

Jack Blackford and substitute Jason Blackburn caused the Seaham defence problems at times but again the killer touch was lacking.
Then with just seconds to go to the end of normal time Seaham grabbed an equaliser when substitute Morgan Dart literally lived up to his surname when he darted through chasing a long ball over the top and he just beat Dean to the ball and steered the ball cleverly just inside the far post for 1-1.

After the game a deeply disappointed Guisborough Manager Steve Bell commented:

If my players had made better decisions at key moments in the game we should have been out of sight of Seaham and had the match won well before Seaham’s late equaliser. That said I am bound to ask myself ‘did we actually deserve to win by the end of the game’ and the honest answer is ‘No’ – even though once again we had all the better chances in the game.

I don’t want to offend anyone when I say this but Seaham have got some very ordinary players albeit with plenty of experience and one or two of our players should take a look at that. I honestly wouldn’t sign a single one of their players but if I did they would have won me the game today. Enough said.

Report: Bill Perfitt

First Half Photos by Dan Clark

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— Guisborough Town F.C. (@guistownfc) October 8, 2022

Second Half Photos by Dan Clark

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— Guisborough Town F.C. (@guistownfc) October 8, 2022