Guisborough Town slump to heavy defeat

Guisborough Town Manager Gary Forster was desperately disappointed to see his side squander some early gilt-edged chances and then slump to a 4-1 defeat against high-flying Bishop Auckland at the KGV Stadium on Saturday. Guisborough hopes were high for a New Year revival to continue after the massive boost from their memorable 2-1 Boxing Day derby victory at arch-rivals Marske United.

But this latest defeat against the Bishops combined with fellow strugglers Jarrow Roofing’s shock 3-1 win at Marske still leaves the Priorymen deep in relegation trouble third from the bottom of the table.

The game started so brightly for Guisborough when they took the lead after just four minutes with a McPhillips header. But after missing chances to increase their lead Guisborough were severely punished as Bishops hit back to take a 2-1 lead inside 30 minutes with a brace of goals from full back Thompson. And then the almost inevitable happened just before half-time when Sam Orritt – back to the KGV in a Bishops shirt after his impressive loan spell with the Priorymen – scored to make it 3-1 to Bishops.

In the second half Guisborough struggled at times to contain the lively visitors but they only breached the Priorymen’s defence once more when they increased their lead to 4-1 in the 49th minute through Johnson and that’s how the game finished.

“Our result against Bishop Auckland was really disappointing,” said Guisborough boss Forster afterwards. “We started really well and should have gone two goals up when Connor Smith found his way through the Bishops’ defence but after that the game plan we had set ourselves sadly went out of the window. We need to re-group now and go again next Saturday at home against Shildon, which couldn’t get any tougher for me team,” added Gary, who made consistent defender Liam McPhillips his Man of the Match.

Guisborough now need to regroup ahead of next Saturday’s very tough home game against league champions Shildon who are currently third in the table.