Guisborough Town vs Birtley Town

Recap

The Hoops fell to a heavy 5-1 defeat at the hands of Guisborough Town on Wednesday evening. 

Birtley suffered a heavy defeat as a Joe Pickett inspired Guisborough Town smashed in five goals on Wednesday evening. The Hoops made a number of forced changes to the side that lost against Horden CW in the FA Vase. Centre halves Alex Francis and Owen Lancaster both missed out due to injury. Nick Marley replaced Francis in an unfamiliar defensive role for the Birtley striker. Sam Dinsley moved to right back and Matty Boyd started in midfield.

It took Guisborough 19 minutes to open the scoring when Joe Pickett raced through and smashed a brilliant finish into the roof of the net. Kelvin Thear was then taken off injured two minutes later, replaced by Jay McLean who himself then picking up an injury on the stroke of half time and had to be substituted at the interval. The Hoops pushed for a way back into the game but without really creating any clear cut chances. 

HALF TIME | Guisborough Town 1-0 Birtley Town

The Hoops pushed early in the second period looking for an instant equaliser. Guisborough themselves were looking dangerous as Frazer headed over a Cal Martins corner. The game changed on the hour mark when Scott Heslop was sin-binned for dissent. Birtley had ten long minutes to ride out while awaiting the return of Heslop. The Hoops however conceded on the 69th minute in what proved to be a killer blow when Joe Pickett smashed home his second of the game with just 60 seconds of Heslop’s sin bin remaining.

James Proctor narrowly missed the target with a free-kick on 72 minutes before Birtley finally found a way back into the game. Jack Elliot beat three players down the right-hand side and delivered a superb cross that was met by the head of Scott Heslop. The Hoops hope was short-lived though as Kenzie Harker scored at the back post following a lapse in the Birtley backline. 

Kyle Davis poked home Town’s fourth in the 84th minute before Joe Pickett curled a low effort into the net in injury time to complete his hat-trick.

A difficult evening for a depleted Birtley side who came up against a strong Guisborough side and an impressive Joe Pickett. 

FULL TIME | Guisborough Town 5-1 Birtley Town

Player of the Match – Jack Elliott

Attendance – 254

Manager’s Corner

Reece Chapman: “We’re disappointed with the result naturally, but we gave a good account of ourselves, especially for the first 75 minutes. Credit to Guisborough for the win, they’re a good side but we do feel the scoreline flatters them a little bit. We were well in a game with what was a makeshift team due to injuries. To make things worse they’ve scored their second when we’ve got Hezzy in the sin bin. He knows he can’t react like that towards the official but in that specific incident I’m not sure I’ve seen a more blatant freekick. The boys put in a fantastic shift and when we made it 2-1 we were the better team in the game. Nevertheless, we’ve gave Guisborough some chances in the last 10-15 minutes and to be fair to them they have finished each of them superbly. Their number 10 scored three fantastic strikes.”

H2H vs Guisborough (at Guisborough Town)
P6 W1 D2 L3 GF8 GA20

Next up…

Birtley host Dunston UTS in the FA Cup on Saturday. 

Highlights

To follow…