A NEW-LOOK Guisborough Town side produced a tremendous display at the KGV Stadium last Saturday to deservedly beat a Whitby Town side packed with many of their former stars.

Guisborough manager Steve Dowling had lost more than half of his regular side during the close season, many of them moving to re-join their former manager, Chris Hardy, at Whitby. But Dowling appears to have constructed a formidable-looking side in a very short space of time and already they appear to be gelling very well.

After a hesitant first 20 minutes, during which Guisborough appeared to be finding their feet, the Priorymen got well into their stride and played some excellent football. Such was their dominance that they thoroughly merited lifting the annual Mickey Skinner Memorial Trophy for the second year running.

Against a Whitby side containing no fewer than seven former Priorymen in their starting line-up, Guisborough did not look overawed, although it took time to get their usual flowing, passing football going. On 32 minutes, their improving play earned its reward when a powerful Connor Smith shot was parried by Whitby keeper Shane Bland, but only as far as Guisborough’s new French signing Thibault Charmey. From about 12 yards, he made no mistake with a low shot into the corner of the net.

After the interval, the match flowed from end to end with chances for both sides before Whitby were awarded a penalty on the hour. But former Guisborough star Mikey Roberts’ low shot towards the right corner was brilliantly saved at full stretch by new keeper Michael Thackeray.

That incident proved a turning point and from then on Guisborough were in the ascendency, but they had to wait until the 82nd minute before Jordan Lee scored the decisive second goal.

After the game, Dowling said: “I thought we started very slowly in the game today, but after 20 minutes or so we started to get Thibault Charmey more involved and I thought we looked dangerous on the counter-attack before we took the lead.

“The match was even then until half-time, with our central defensive pairing of Leon Carling and Jordan Galloway enjoying excellent games alongside our new keeper Michael Thackery, who made an excellent reflex save to preserve our one-goal lead.

“In the second half, I thought the game was well under control, with our defence keeping Whitby’s chances to a minimum and we always looked a threat up front. We got a deserved second from Jordan Lee after Thackeray made a superb penalty save from Mikey Roberts. There were many excellent performances from my team.”