Late equaliser sees points shared by Northallerton and Guisborough

THE points were shared in the Bank Holiday match between Northallerton Town and Guisborough Town after a late equaliser from the Priorymen.

Harry Ord got the leveller four minutes from time in an entertaining and highly competitive encounter at Northallerton's Calvert Stadium.

Guisborough has taken the lead in the 35th minute with a well-worked move involving a testing cross from the left from Steve Roberts, and a clever knock-on header from Louis Johnson, which gave skipper Callum Martin the chance to nip in smartly to score from close range.

Northallerton equalised within a minute with a softish goal from Lewis Rees, and then just two minutes from half-time, Northallerton turned the tables on Guisborough with a goal from Andrew Shepherd for 2-1 to the home side.

The second half was end to end with both sides tiring, having played two games in three days, and there were chances at both ends until the 86th minute when a cleverly executed corner from Guisborough found Ord at the back post and he swept the ball into the far corner for 2-2.

In the last minute Guisborough substitute Ben Jackson had a chance to win the game, but he fired his shot not far over the Northallerton bar. A good Bank Holiday Monday crowd of 206 could feel they had been well-entertained overall by both sides.

Guisborough manager Steve Bell said: “It was a frustrating day today to be honest. On reflection, in the end I think we can look back on the outcome of today’s game and see it as a point well-earned."

Guisborough goalkeeper Robert Dean dives to his right to push a goal-bound shot around the post

Guisborough Town 0, Newton Aycliffe 0 (EBAC Northern League – Division One)

GUISBOROUGH Town were reduced to nine men by the end of their incredible encounter with Newton Aycliffe at the KGV on Saturday, but managed to hold on for an important point.

The Priorymen played all but ten minutes of the 90 with ten men after defender Harry Ord was shown the red card for handing the ball on the goal-line to keep out a shot from former Guisborough striker Sonni Coleman, now playing for Aycliffe. Ord protested his innocence claiming the ball had hit his chest, to no avail. Coleman took the resulting penalty, but put it well wide, much to the delight of the Guisborough fans in another excellent crowd of 241.

The Priorymen were down to nine men for the last few minutes of the game after striker Steve Roberts was also red carded after an altercation with an Aycliffe defender, but the superb Guisborough defensive back line of Nick Hood, James Dillon, George Redman and Lucas Bell held firm with midfielders Callum Martin, George Waites and Lewis Green working their socks off.

With time running out and the Guisborough crowd baying for the referee to blow for full-time, Aycliffe mounted one final attack in search of a winner but Guisborough ‘keeper Robert Dean pulled off another brilliant save to give his side a memorable point from an incident-packed game.

Priorymen manager Steve Bell said: “I’m so proud of the lads and I’ve just told them to go out and celebrate tonight as if they’ve won 4-0 not drawn 0-0. They were absolutely brilliant.”