Tow Law Town 0-3 Guisborough Town

Match Report

Guisborough Town cruised to a comfortable 3-0 win at strugglers Tow Law Town on Tuesday night to stretch their fantastic unbeaten run to 14 games and continue their truly meteoric rise up the table to the dizzy heights of third place.

The richly deserved victory – with all three goals coming in the first half – saw the Priorymen leapfrog then third-placed West Auckland Town to put themselves well and truly in the mix for the promotion play-offs at the end of the season.

Bottom-of-the-table Tow Law proved a tougher nut to crack than their league placing suggests – and they were no doubt boosted by a shock 3-1 first league win of the season at Northallerton on Saturday.

But Guisborough soon were on their way to snuffing out any chance of another surprise result by the ‘Lawyers’ by taking the lead after only four minutes’ play.

Guisborough won a corner out on the right and full back/dead ball specialist Callum Martin floated over a beautiful flag kick which defender Jack Bailey, timing his run brilliantly, met to thunder home a tremendous header for 1-0 to the Priorymen.

The goal was an early prelude to another fine game for the versatile Bailey, Guisborough’s midfielder-cum-defender.

In the next 15 minutes or so Guisborough carved open the Tow Law defence on numerous occasions with Joe Pickett – in irrepressible form again – and the lively Matty Tymon and Jason Blackburn all prominent in raids on the Tow Law goal.

But the Priorymen had to wait until the 27th minute to get the second goal their undoubted superiority merited and it came from a penalty.

Kurtis Howes cut in menacingly from the left and was brought down from behind for a stonewall spot kick and up stepped Callum Martin once again to hit an unstoppable shot into the left hand corner for 2-0.

In the next 10 minutes Joey Smith and Howes were combining brilliantly together with the former twice setting up the latter on goal but Howes saw good efforts thwarted by a good block and save by the Tow Law ‘keeper.

On 35 minutes Tymon raced through to ‘score’ with a classy chip over the keeper but a linesman’s flag intervened to chalk the goal off for offside.

Guisborough finally got a crucial third goal in a minute into first half time added on when brilliant work from defender Alex ‘Nella’ Nelson continued his rich vein of form by teeing up a great chance for Jason Blackburn.

SQUIRMED OVER GOAL-LINE!

The big striker hit a low, low shot that was partially saved by the Lawyers ‘keeper who then had to watch in anguish as the ball squirmed slowly over the goal-line for a commanding 3-0 half-time lead for the Priorymen.

There was no further score in the second half as Tow Law showed plenty of plucky spirit without really troubling Guisborough’s assured ‘keeper Robert Dean.

Guisborough did get the ball in the net in the 81st minute when Tymon rifled home and the hungry striker was sinbinned for 10 minutes for showing his displeasure at being flagged offside after the ball ended up in the back of the net.

Both before and after that incident Guisborough carved out numerous chances but a combination of bad luck and last-ditch Tow Law defending denied the Priorymen any further score.

Guisborough’s second half substitute Mason McNeill wreaked havoc at times in the Lawyers’ defence but he just couldn’t supply the telling final touch, including one gilt-edged chance a minute from the end of normal time when he skied over from close in after a wonderful weaving run by Ben Cummins laid the ball on a plate for him!

All in all, then, an impressive win for the Priorymen although they could easily have doubled the final 3-0 scoreline had they converted more chances into goals.

The win has now put the Priorymen in a strong position to claim one of the four end-of-season play-off places for the teams finishing second, third, fourth and fifth.

After the game at Tow Law Guisborough Manager Steve Bell commented:

This was a good, solid performance by the lads tonight. The three goals in the first half were enough to win us the game and another three points keeps the unbeaten run going.

A slight worry is the couple of injuries we picked up so there’s one of two doubtful now for what is a massive game now away to Whitley Bay on Saturday.

As Steve said, Guisborough’s next game is this coming Saturday, 9 March (KO 3pm) and will be a tough one at eighth-placed Whitley Bay – who scored a resounding 7-2 victory over derby rivals North Shields on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, another feather in Guisborough Town’s cap today is that the players of Championship play-off chasers Norwich City are at the KGV ground this morning to train ahead of their league match at the Riverside against Boro tonight.

Report: Bill Perfitt