Tow Law Town 3-1 Guisborough Town

Match Report

Guisborough Town Manager Steve Bell had some blunt words for his team after seeing them go down 3-1 at lowly Tow Law Town on Thursday – despite the Priorymen leading 1-0 with a goal almost on the stroke of half-time.

Within five minutes of the restart, however, the ‘Lawyers’ had overturned that narrow lead to go ahead 2-1 and a third goal capped a miserable night for Guisborough.

After the game Guisborough’s boss commented:

Look, the brutal honesty is we’ve been bang average since the turn of Christmas. As manager, I have to take responsibility for that. You can go through ups and downs from the start of the New Year and in some of the games I can maybe make some genuine excuses. But the actual truth of the matter is that we’ve just not been good enough for a while now and tonight’s game at Tow Law just sums us up at the moment.

It’s done me and my Assistant Manager Paul Crager a huge favour in one respect as we’ve learned a lot about our squad for next season. I would like to add my apologies to all those supporters of ours who braved the journey up to Tow Law tonight.

Tow Law were playing their third match in five days but over almost the entire game they looked the livelier and much more determined side compared to the Priorymen. Nevertheless the first half was relatively even with both sides having chances to take the lead.

Guisborough had young ‘keeper Will Cowey to thank for two good saves in the first 20 minutes while for the Priorymen Jack Blackford was prominent in raids down the left while Mikey McGee forced a good save from the Tow Law ‘keeper. It was Blackford who earned a penalty for Guisborough when he cut in from the left but was pulled back inside the box by a Tow Law defender.

SPOT KICK SAVED!

Guisborough’s leading scorer Cole Kiernan hit the spot kick well enough towards the left corner of the Tow Law net but it was brilliantly pushed away for a corner by the home ‘keeper. However, almost on the stroke of half-time, Guisborough took the lead when striker Mikey McGee surged through the Tow Law defence to score with an excellent shot into the corner of the net.

Within five minutes of the restart, however, Tow Law had overturned Guisborough’s lead with a brace of goals from Aaron Hardy in the 47th and 49th minutes, exposing the defensive shortcomings of the Priorymen’s defence.

Guisborough then twice went close with efforts from the lively Blackford and McGee before Town Law scored a third goal on the hour mark through Luke Page, punishing Guisborough for another defensive blunder for 3-1 to the home side. And that’s how it stayed to the final whistle in a game played in front of a meagre crowd of just 83.

Report: Bill Perfitt