West Allotment Celtic 3, Guisborough Town 2 (Northern League – Division One)

VIRTUALLY just one man stood between Guisborough Town and a handsome win for the Priorymen at West Allotment Celtic on Saturday.

The home side's saviour was goalkeeper Finlay Hodgson, who was in inspired form, pulling off a string of brilliant saves in both halves to deny the Priorymen a hatful of goals. And then as happened in the first half, with only three minutes of the match remaining West scored a third breakaway goal which clinched an unlikely 3-2 win for the hosts, which even their own officials admitted was very tough on Guisborough.

For all Guisborough’s pressure in the opening stages, it was West who took an unexpected 22nd minute lead completely against the run of play when Liam Beeston fired home following a raid down the left flank. Undaunted, Guisborough continued to press forward and on 26 minutes defender Louis Hall joined in the attack and got in a good header which went wide of the post. Nine minutes later, however, Guisborough’s constant pressure finally yielded its reward when Ben Jackson produced a great run down the left wing and crossed perfectly for Louis Johnson to stab the ball home for 1-1.

Guisborough started the second half just as they had left the first, swarming all over the West goal, and the Priorymen took a deserved 2-1 lead in the 49th minute when Jackson surged forward and smashed the ball into the roof of the net. Guisborough continued to press forward in a bid to increase their lead. First Jason Blackburn went close on 51 minutes, but his shot was blocked at point blank range by Hodgson. Just a minute later there was an unbelievable miss for the Priorymen when Johnson connected brilliantly at the far post with a partly-deflected cross, but Hodgson saved superbly yet again.

In the 75th minute Johnson put in a hard, low shot but Hodgson saved well once more. Then, after soaking up so much Guisborough pressure West mounted another breakaway in the 76th minute, and the unmarked Matty Hayton slotted the ball home into an empty net for 2-2.

Just three minutes from time, West broke clear once again, and Rui Martins hit a rasping 20 yard shot which evaded the desperate grasp of Guisborough ‘keeper Robert Dean for a shock 3-2 lead to the home side.

After the game, a gutted Guisborough manager Steve Bell said: “I’m not going to lie – this defeat was a tough one to swallow. We dominated for so much of the game and then suffered from a few counter-attacks which ultimately brought them the victory. If we had scored five or six goals today, I don’t think West Allotment could have complained. Their goalkeeper was in inspired form and foiled us almost single-handedly on so many occasions.”

“I thought our players gave their all out there and to lose out like we did was a bitter pill to swallow."

Guisborough’s next game is another league match at home to Whickham at the KGV Stadium on Saturday (KO 3pm).