10th November 2018 - Guisborough Town (a)

The first reaction of most of the Whitley fans when I appeared at Guisborough was: "You never did this in 45 minutes!" They were right of course. The helicopter is still in the garage. Mrs Blogger and I took the opportunity to visit some of her family friends in and around Guisborough so I had the perfect excuse to get to the game.
You couldn't fail to be impressed, just before entering through Guisborough's magnificent turnstile, by the view. The Cleveland Hills rising behind you is as impressive as the view surrounding Esh Winning, even if there are many more houses added to take away from the view. However, at Esh Winning there is no programme seller making use if a handily-placed tree stump to sell his wares so Guisborough wins on that front. The stands either side of the ground have real character and there is an overall charm to the place. The ground is a throwback to the 1970s: white-bricked walls and corrugated iron roofs. On a crisp November afternoon with the all the colours of Autumn there is no better advert for the Northern League.

 Unfortunately, the good people of Guisborough don't realise what a gem they have on their doorstep. The bar area was filled with the great and the good of Whitley (and Gibbo - joke) and very few others...

 ...while the refreshment area had ghostly mists emanating from it. All it needed was some Guisboroughians to suck its tempting smells into their lungs...but they weren't here yet. the girl at the counter carried on playing with her phone!
As one Guisboroughian commented: "Thank god Whitley have brought some fans." The crowd would eventually reach 145. How many of those were from Whitley it would be impolite to guess!

Before the game, the traditional Remembrance Day minute's silence was broken by an extremely rude inhabitant from the depths of Guisborough's allotments. The Guisborough Goose was quiet for no man and was not a respector of tradition. One japing fan asked whether I had space in my bag to fit her: again I will keep Foxy's name out of this! Such an appropriate name I feel. 

After all this, there was a football match to play!

 Back into the team came the fit-again Thomas Flynn. Out went Lewis Walton, Kieran Brannen and Andrei and in came Taggart, Suddick and Callum A.

I blotted my copybook straight away as I called the roving camera that is Julian by his alter ego (in my twisted mind) of Jeremy. I have no idea why I have started doing this and will be seeking psychiatric help to rectify the situation.

After all this excitement and communion with nature, a football match had to start and many wished it hadn't as mis-placed and nervy passes dominated. The number of chances was at a minimum. Eventually one of the teams settled and began creating chances, unfortunately it wasn't Whitley. The Flynnster maybe had hoped for a quiet game to find his feet but the rug was well and truly pulled from under him on the front. He had to be on his metal as Guisborough camped out in the Whitley half. He was assisted by his defence, Craig McFarlane heading off the line at one point but everytime the ball was cleared, a stray pass or hasty shot meant the ball came straight back, despite Dan Taggart's best endeavours.

The Raven almost snatched the lead but his first effort was saved and the rebound sailed gracefully over the Town bar. The half time whistle was greeted with  relief by the away following. 

Into the second half and things weren't much better. Town attacked, Whitley defended. In the 58th minute, Kieran Brannen came on for Jack Cooper. Not many thought much of this but when the youngster chased a lost cause and managed to hook it back across goal, suddenly it looked like the team had a bit of belief that maybe the three points were there for the taking. 

The youngster's pace was suddenly worrying the home side. A run down the opposite wing ended up with a cracking shot that Town's Jordan Nixon acrobatically dived full length to keep out; the ball flashing just past the approaching Taggart.

The Bay had woken up. There was delight for the visitors on 76 minutes when the much-improved Dan T skillfully dribbled into the box before rolling the ball into Peter the Raven's path. His initial shot was saved but he volleyed home the rebound.

The Bay now surged forward, full of confidence and could have sealed the win but Brannen's shot flashed wide. He was doing everything that he hadn't managed to do against Shields the week before.

With injury time upon us, Guisborough threw caution to the wind and Nixon joined the attack as 11 outfield players fought for the equaliser.  The very serious man with the stepladder, who had come to take the nets down early hoping that Nixon wouldn't need his, enjoyed informing us that Nixon had already scored three late goals coming out of goal.

Surely they couldn't manage to do it could they? Unfortunately, the answer was yes. in 90+2 a familiar sight of an opposition forward celebrating a late goal was repeated as 80s pop-icon-turned-Northern-League footballer Paul Young scored.

The final score of 1-1 was a fair result but hard to take. However on the plus side, it was a point and an improved final 30 minutes.