Guiseley V Worksop Town - UniBond League - Premier Division

THE LATE LATE SHOW

Saturday 3rd October 2009, UniBond League, Premier Division
Nethermoor Park, Guiseley

Guiseley (0) 1 (Steve Burton 74)
Worksop Town (0) 2 (Matt Glass 90, Tom Jones 90)

Admission £7. Programme £1. Free teamsheet
Attendance 276
Bright sunshine and a strong wind greeted the players onto the pitch at Guiseley this afternoon.
Worksop played the first half with that wind behind them and it showed as the majority of play was focussed in and around the business end of the home teams half, but Guiseley still showed why they are currently placed high in the table with some good passing football on the counter attack when they did get the chance to move forward.
Ben Tomlinson looked like he couldn't miss from a chance created when Kev Sanasy flicked on a Scott Lowe throw in on ten minutes, but somehow managed to. Maybe the gusting wind had made ball control difficult at the final moment ... but the chance went begging.
Tomlinson again threatened on 21 minutes when he hit a rasping shot that Guiseley's Jon Worsnop did well to keep out ... the ball rebounded out to Kris Bowler who was bought down in the area as he stepped up to shoot with the keeper grounded. A clear penalty. But the ref waved it away.
The Guiseley fans near where we were stood nodded and said it was a foul and even Worsnop turned to the irate Tigers fans behind his goal and confirmed a penalty should have been given. But match official Steve Rowntree was having none of it.
The secret of overcoming these decisions is to stay focussed in spite of an obvious sense of injustice and that is what Worksop did ... both Tom Jones and Gary Townsend bought the best out of the Guiseley keeper before the break too ... he was putting in a good shift this afternoon and no mistake.

HT 0-0, very windy.

In the second half, it was Guiseley's turn to attack with the luxury of wind assistance and it was Jon Kennedy in the Tigers goal who was busiest for a spell pulling off a couple of fine saves.
But Worksop kept grafting and tried to keep pressing forward through the difficult conditions.
On 74 minutes substitute Steve Burton lashed home an unstoppable effort from the left hand side of the box to put Guiseley in front. And for a while the home side looked to be odds on to improve that slender lead ... Kennedy pulled off a blinding save from Reeves demonstrating his side weren't beaten yet ... and then the balance of play switched back as Worksop, fully aware that they deserved something from this game, attacked to claim the equaliser their performance warranted.
And claim it they did too, in some style, Gary Townsend picked up the ball from a Scott Lowe throw in and danced his way through four challenges before teeing up the ball for Matt Glass to strike home an equaliser in the very last minute.
The game crept in to injury time and the Lions of Guiseley defended deep against the Tigers of Worksop (it was truly a jungle out there). With stoppage time ticking away Gary Townsend was once again the provider, as his free kick was headed past Jon Worsnop for a late, late winning goal from Tom Jones ... well worth £50 of anybody's sponsorship money ;-)

After letting their heads drop and having lost any kind of cohesion after going 2-1 down at Retford the previous week, the Tigers seem to have taken on board the lesson that they have to stay focussed when things are going against them ... maybe the injustice of the wrongly called penalty decision today spurred them on too, either way it was good to see the team working through the injustice of it all, rather than having to resort to using the excuse/justification* of an incorrect decision going against them at the end of the day.
Referee's are human, they do make honest mistakes and miss things and no amount of protesting and moaning is ever going to change any decision ... although we've all shouted ourselves hoarse from time to time.
Mr Rowntree's cock up today was one of the worst I've seen for quite a while though.

Credit where it's due, people have been quick to call the manager when things have gone awry, so how about giving him a bit of praise today guys?

It was a team effort here this afternoon and it would probably be wrong to single out a man of the match, but Scott Lowe couldn't have done any more than he did today if you had to choose somebody. Maybe in spells, Guiseley had played some of the nicer 'tippy tappy' football, but the Tigers worked their socks off for those three points and thoroughly deserved the victory they took away from windy West Yorkshire.
A good afternoon got even better when we inadvertently went the wrong way coming home and ended up finding the A1 southbound quicker than we had planned. Ta for the lift Mr Spell Checker.
By the way ... I still can't hear the Harpal Singh.