Whickham 0-4 Guisborough Town

Match Report

Two superb goals from recent new signing Alfie Turnbull and a brace of beauties from fellow striker Kyle Davis earned Guisborough Town a brilliant 4-0 win at Whickham on Tuesday night.

The win catapulted the Priorymen up from 10th in the table to the lofty height of sixth following two wins in a row with seven goals scored and none conceded.

Alfie, a 22-year-old signing from Billingham Town, who is currently dual registered with Dunston Town, scored his two goals in the first 11 minutes of the game against Whickham to get Guisborough off to a great start.

Davis’s goals came in the 44th and 75th minutes as the Priorymen purred along to a convincing four-goal victory which absolutely delighted team Manager Steve Connolly.

After the game, Steve commented: “I’m very happy with the overall team performance. Whickham is always a difficult place to come here anytime but in midweek it’s extra tough.

‘PHYSICAL GAME’

“Whickham gave us a physical game but the boys got some early goals and took control of the game and I think they handled the second half quite professionally.

“It was great to see Alfie Turnbull on his first full start get a double and two good finishes as well. I liked the second one a wee bit better the way he turned and swivelled on the ball.

“Kyle Davis when he plays at No 9 is obviously a real threat. I’m very happy we scored the goals we did but I actually think we deserved to have scored a few more,” said Steve.

He added: “What we are trying to do with the squad is create more chances and score more goals. But we’re amateur players and we’re not perfect and we are going to miss goal-scoring opportunities.

“But we want to continue creating lots and lots of them and last Saturday we scored three against Newcastle Benfield and tonight we’ve scored four and the lads really take all the credit for buying into what we want to do.”

Steve was also very pleased with the two clean sheets in the last two games, adding: “Since we’ve come into the club we’ve changed things a wee bit and it’s come as no surprise and credit for that goes to all the players and not just the back five.”

Just one minute into the game Guisborough got off to a great start when they took the lead from Alfie Turnbull’s first goal. It came from a long ball by Guisborough ‘keeper Robert Turnbull which was flicked on by Kyle Davis to Turnbull who went past the Whickham ‘keeper and finished brilliantly into the far bottom corner for 1-0.

Then just 10 minutes later Turnbull scored his second when a ball in from the left was headed back into the danger area by Bradley Mills where Alfie was hand to swivel superbly and plant the ball into the same bottom corner for 2-0.

Guisborough took virtually complete control for the rest of the first half, creating chances galore but they had to wait until a minute before half-time when Davis got in on the scoring act!

Joe Pickett floated yet another great free kick into the Whickham penalty area for Kyle to glance a clever header over the home ‘keeper and into the net to send the Priorymen into the interval 3-0 up.

On 60 minutes Guisborough had a great chance to go 4-0 up when Kurtis Howes got in front of his defender and was brought down in the box for a clear penalty. Kurtis himself took the spot kick but the Whickham ‘keeper produced a great save to deny the Guisborough winger. It was tough luck on Howes who had put in a great shift on the night.

In the 68th minute James Frazer kept the score at 3-0 when he made an unbelievable goal-saving block.

Guisborough were still asking all the questions of Whickham and the Priorymen provided the main answer in the 75th minute when yet another Pickett free kick from the left was whipped in and Davis was on hand to head home again for 4-0. And that’s how it stayed to the end.

The crowd was a meagre 152 and it would have been much less but for a healthy contingent of travelling Guisborough faithful.

Guisborough now face arch local derby rivals Marske United away this coming Saturday, 2 November (KO 3pm).

Guisborough boss Connolly said he was relishing the prospect of managing in his first-ever Marske/Guisborough derby.

He said: “I’m looking forward to this game, it is between two clubs who in my past I’ve had games against. So it’s my first Guisborough v Marske derby. Loads of players know each other and the two clubs know each other really well.

“I’ve coached a good portion of the Marske squad in the past so it’ll be absolutely great to catch up with some familiar faces and I very much hope we can keep this little winning run of ours going,” added Steve.

Report: Bill Perfitt