Guisborough Town 2 Norton & Stockton Ancients 1

GUISBOROUGH Town maintained second place in the Ebac Northern League division one table, and avenged a shock 3-1 defeat at the hands of local rivals Norton and Stockton Ancients last October, with a 2-1 victory at the KGV Stadium last Saturday.

Guisborough dominated their bottom-of-the-table opponents for much of the game, but found it hard to convert their superiority into goals, with Norton often getting 10 or 11 men behind the ball to frustrate the Priorymen’s numerous attacks.

The woodwork came to the rescue of both sides, Steve Snaith hitting the angle of post and bar with a fierce 20-yard shot in the 16th minute and Norton left back Lewis Walton's 35-yard screamer five minutes after the interval clipping the top of the bar.

The Priorymen finally took the lead in the 68th minute with a well-worked goal. Danny Earl turned the ball into the area, where Snaith was on hand to neatly tuck the ball home from close range.

They increased their lead in the 79th minute when substitute Connor Smith made an immediate impact. His persistence in the penalty area created an opening for himself and he lashed the ball under Norton keeper Ryan Braithwaite and into the far corner of the net.

Plucky Norton refused to throw in the towel and battled right to the final whistle. They managed to reduce the arrears four minutes from time when Phillip Caley prodded the ball home from close range despite the efforts of Guisborough keeper Nick Liversedge to keep the ball out.

The home side's Gary Wood had a fine game in midfield until substituted midway through the second half due to a recurrence of his troublesome hip problem, but his replacement Chay Liddle injected fresh pace and penetration into the game.

The hard-earned victory maintained Guisborough’s grip on second place in the league, but leaders Shildon won again and wins for Newton Aycliffe and Marske mean there are still plenty of teams just below the Priorymen who are breathing down their necks.

After the game, Guisborough manager Steve Dowling said: “I thought we played well in the first half against a young and fit Norton side and probably should have been leading at half-time by a couple of goals. We played some decent football and caused them a lot of problems, particularly through Ste Snaith and Danny Earl, well-supported by good work from Peter Bulmer and Curtis Round.

“The second half was a more even affair, but I thought we would go on to win the game at 1-0 following an excellent goal created by Danny Earl and finished off by Snaith. Then, after another good goal from ‘super-sub’ Connor Smith, we should have killed the game off, but conceded a late goal to give Norton the chance of a late point.”