Guisborough Town 2 Ashington 0

TWO goals inside the last nine minutes, including a stunning Steve Snaith gem, earned gutsy Guisborough Town a hard-fought victory over a stubborn Ashington side at a wind and rain-swept KGV Stadium last Saturday.

It was the Priorymen’s fourth straight league win in a row and ensured they retained second position in the Ebac Northern League division one table, although many of their closest rivals also won.

Although seven places below Guisborough at the start of play, Ashington surprised the Priorymen with their standard of their play. Until Snaith broke the deadlock late on, the visitors came close to scoring on several occasions, with good efforts going either just too high or too wide. Their big, no-nonsense defenders also proved hard to break down for the Guisborough midfielders and forwards.

Guisborough had to dig deep to eventually grind out a result and it wasn’t until the 81st minute that their tenacious striker Snaith rounded off a superb move. Danny McWilliams and Curt Round linked up well down the left before Snaith curled a terrific 20-yard shot beyond the reach of Ashington keeper Connor Grant and just inside the far post.

It was Snaith’s 14th goal of the season and capped another fine display by the ex-Whitby player, who has slotted into the Guisborough team exceptionally well and continues to impress greatly with his wholehearted commitment game after game.

Then, in the 88th minute, Danny Earl rounded off another man-of-the-match performance by netting his 31st goal of what has been a superb season so far for Guisborough’s leading marksman. Another fine passing move down the left ended with a cross from McWilliams and Earl was there to smash the ball against the bar before tapping in the rebound to ensure all three points for the Priorymen.

The result keeps Guisborough within striking distance of leaders Shildon, but it looks like it is going to be a very tight race for the title.

Guisborough manager Steve Dowling, who has not seen his side lose since he took over in December, was delighted with the result.

He said afterwards: “This was a very hard-fought game against a very competitive Ashington side. I actually thought Ashington shaded the first half and looked dangerous in forward areas, but our back four coped well with them.”

Their pressing made it difficult to get our passing game going and I thought in the first half that we kicked too long on occasions and played into their hands. In the second half, we got on the ball more and created quite a few more chances.

"I thought our superior fitness levels got us over the line today with two excellent goals late on. Steve Snaith got a very good individual goal and Danny Earl rounded off a well-worked team goal.”