West Auckland Town 4-1 Guisborough Town

Match Report

Very often in football, a final scoreline doesn’t always tell the full story and accurately reflect the dynamics of the game.

This was certainly the case when Guisborough Town travelled to West Auckland Town on Saturday and ended up on the wrong side of a 4-1 scoreline.

Despite going in 1-0 down at half-time, the Priorymen actually dominated the first 45 and were unlucky to go in behind at the interval.

And then after a positive start to the second half, West doubled their lead within the hour mark, somewhat against the flow of the game.

Guisborough Town Manager Steve Connolly commented after the game:

I felt we dominated the first and we were very unlucky to go 1-0 down.

We started the second half brightly and some would say we were unfortunate not to be awarded an easy free in the build-up to West’s second goal. After that, the game changed and we had to make some attacking substitutes but in trying to be overly adventurous this inevitably left us more exposed.

Our skipper Cal Martin gave us brief hope with a good goal in the 72nd minute to pull things back to 3-1 but a late West goal killed off any hopes we had of a comeback.

This latest defeat for the Priorymen meant they have now lost six games in succession since that hugely impressive 4-0 win at Teesside neighbours Boro Rangers at the beginning of the New Year.

In stark contrast, West Auckland haven’t been beaten in the five games they have played since the start of the New Year.

And it took West only seven minutes after the kick-off to go ahead with a goal from the home side’s man-of-the match James Harrison – his first of a hat-trick of goals he scored.

BRIGHT START TO SECOND HALF

After the interval, Guisborough’s bright start to the second half yielded no reward and it was West who doubled their lead in 58th minute from Leo Robinson.

Then just 10 minutes later West went 3-0 up when Harrison scored his second goal.

There was a glimmer of hope for the Priorymen in the 72nd minute when Cal Martin scored a peach of a goal, curling the ball beautifully with his weaker left foot over the West keeper into the top corner for 3-1.

Guisborough brought on some of their attacking subs in a bid to salvage something from the game, but inevitably they left themselves exposed and West completed the scoring on 90 minutes when Harrison duly completed his hat-trick.

The result meant Guisborough slipped another place down the league table to eighth and a place in the play-offs is now looking a long shot.

Guisborough’s next match is at home to West Allotment Celtic on Saturday, 15 February (KO 3pm).

Report: Bill Perfitt
Photos: Dan Clark

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— Guisborough Town F.C. (@guistownfc) February 15, 2025

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— Guisborough Town F.C. (@guistownfc) February 15, 2025