Marine 1 Guiseley 3

Funny old game football.

For 70 minutes this had all the hallmarks of our last few performances, plenty of endeavour but ultimately toothless and heading for defeat.

Strange too that the game was swung by the half time introduction of Lewis Whitham who’s determination to make things happen renewed belief in the rest of the side.

He lasted just 28 minutes before worryingly limping off having looked troubled by the injury that had seen him miss the last 3 games within minutes of the restart.

Whitham had replaced Bradford City loanee Harvey Rowe who in turn had replaced ex Real Madrid ( and Woodford of the Essex league Alejandro who lasted just 20 minutes before being removed unceremoniously from the fray.

There was time before he departed to witness Kallan Murphys first goal for the club to level the scores and rich reward for all his hard work since he joined the club.

Cassidys introduction after a long absence maintained the renewed momentum before Benni Smales-Braithwaite clinched an unlikely 3 points with two sublime finishes both in added time.

No one can accuse the management team of dilly dallying over substitutions and ultimately they paid off to great effect but this remains a pre season-like chopping and changing with a view to next season.

As for the Alejandro, fresh on the back of the equally off the cuff signing of Shane Smeltz reminds of Chris Kamala’s time at Bradford City . Each week random people were in the starting line up, some stayed, some disappeared as quickly as they arrived. One was signed as a forward and turned out to be a full back! Many of them clearly had brilliant agents 😀.

The good news is he got Bradford City promoted before he was subsequently dismissed and became a National treasure on tv,

Who knows how this will end.

Fascinating setup at Marine with their extremely compact 3-sided ground, 4G pitch and very friendly and fair minded supporters.

Shoutout to our own travelling support who despite the rain sang their hearts out and were ultimately rewarded for keeping the faith.

Guiseley 0 Gainsborough Trinity 1

For two teams within reaching distance of the play offs this was a drab uneventful game that had all the hallmarks of an end of season dead rubber.

2 points from the last 4 games have all but ended The Lions play off chances and left a flat feeling at a Nethermoor that has witnessed three poor home performances in the space of a fortnight.

Pre match Twitter talk suggested management had resigned themselves to seeing out the season with an emphasis on youth. And so it proved with a very inexperienced bench offering no real plan B when plan A (if there was one) wasn’t working.

All played out in front of the lowest Saturday crowd of the season.

A post match interview where Paul Phillips astonishingly labelled some of the players “cowards” only added to a wholly unsatisfactory afternoon.

All very disappointing and unsettling.

Guiseley 1 Radcliffe 3

Deary me, this was truly dreadful.

Paul Phillips made several changes following Tuesdays no show with 4 players making their competitive debuts. Alas it was pretty much the same with a disjointed and at times woeful performance

There seemed to be a lack of belief from the start as 3rd placed Radcliffe cruised into a 2-0 lead within 20 minutes without breaking sweat.

Too many changes in personnel are preventing the side from developing a pattern and understanding. Whilst the frequent comings and goings can’t be good for moral with players wondering who’s next to be shown the door.

Injuries to key players are a valid excuse but not the whole reason for the wheels coming off the bus.

Nethermoor has become a library as supporters watch in disbelief at the shambles unfolding.

Still 9 games to go but Management now have a huge task to ensure the season doesn’t drift tamely to its conclusion.

Todays programme notes interestingly suggest that at the start of the season the Board didn’t expect a play off bid given the complete rebuild that was required. Fair enough.

So what was the sudden urgency for change in November all about?

We may never know.

Guiseley 0 Lancaster City 0

An inform Guiseley at home to 18th placed Lancaster looked like it should have been a routine 3 points for the Lions.

In reality the Lions were very fortunate to get even a point as only some wayward finishing denied the visitors a comfortable win.

Injuries to Whitham and Smith undoubtedly meant Guiseley started the game without two key players but I’m not sure this can entirely excuse a performance that, for the second half in particular, we were clearly second best.

We did have first half chances but the sight of Paul Phillips marching to the tunnel before the referee blew for half time indicated he was far from happy with what he had seen.

Whatever he said and the immediate introduction of Haw and switch to a back four did not have the desired effect. In fact arguably we looked even more disjointed and ragged at the back.

At was it this point Cam Mason earned his man of the match award with some good saves.

That said there seemed to be an endless string of one on ones that Alan aster inexplicably blasted over the bar or wide.

Haw missed a decent chance but in truth we were hanging on by the end. Supporters far from hoping the referee would add on plenty of time to snatch a winner were relieved it was only 5 minutes injury time to endure.

Tired legs, busy schedule catching up with a small squad? We may never know and can only hope this was a wake up call that will prove the spark to rekindle our play off push.

Listening to Paul Phillips after the game it seemed clear one or two players may not be seeing much game time, if any,in the run in.

It would be churlish not to give credit to Lancaster who played with a purpose and a pace we rarely matched on the night and will rightly wonder how they didn’t take all 3 points.

As for the Lions we will have to be so much better against Radcliffe on Saturday.

Warrington Town 0 Guiseley 0

A poor spectacle as the combination of two in form teams cancelling each other out and an uneven lively pitch in blustery conditions meant there was little goalmouth action in an instantly forgettable 90 minutes.

That said a point at a team in 3rd place and who are now unbeaten in 13 games may prove that this was ultimately not a wasted journey as the race for play off places rounds the home turn.

Another positive was that the minutes silence was impeccably observed by both sets of supporters as they paid their respects to Brianne Ghey who brutally lost her life in a Warrington park last weekend.

Nor was there any afters to the despicable water bottle incident that overshadowed our Trophy win on the same ground

The substitution of the already cautioned and then warned Murphy whilst understandable meant we were older puff upfront. The fact that midfielder Harris replaced him suggested we were happier ensuring a point than risking a defeat.

What was of concern was to see Lewis Whitham ,who even on a day like this looked the most likely to break the deadlock, hobbling off in clear discomfort. Any significant absence will seriously damage our play off chances.

Without him we look solid but toothless and will struggle to turn draws in to wins.

Chippendale was also substituted after 20 minutes to be replaced by new signing Lees although it was unclear if this was tactical or prompted by injury.

3 home games coming up starting with Lancaster City on Tuesday. A win then will make this point a whole lot better.

Guiseley 4 Stafford Rangers 0

The proverbial game of two halves with the ultimately emphatic 4-0 win looking a million miles away at half time.

A poor, scrappy first half gave no hint of the goals to come as The Lions got sucked in to Stafford’s direct style rather than playing the ball on the floor. Indeed bar for a brilliant last ditch tackle by Ible after Smith uncharacteristically gave the ball away and the crossbar saved Guiseley from being 2 down.

The introduction of Adam Haw at half time saw Guiseley get the ball down and put the visitors on the back foot. The breakthrough came with a contender for goal of the season as Whitham who had switched to the right launch a left foot screamer that the keeper was never going to reach.

Courtney Meppen -Walters then sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot a fact highlighted Whitham when he mockingly re-enacted the keepers despairing dive not once but twice!

Whitham was only denied by the post for a second but Haw was there to fire in the rebound as injury hit Stafford visibly wilted under the second half onslaught.

There was still time for Ible to turn in a 4th to complete an emphatic win that was the perfect response to the injury time heartache on Tuesday.

6 points off the play offs in 10th spot the Lions travel to Matlock (Tuesday) and Warrington Town Saturday) in good heart.

Off the field whilst Stafford’s small travelling support might not have been an attraction for young would-be hooligans it was good to see the club’s latest attempt to rid Nethermoor of this unwanted element prove successful, for now at least, although there will be bigger tests to come.

Man of the match : Boateng

Marske United 2 Guiseley4

Not even a very uneven surface every looked like stopping The Lions from bringing 3 points back from the seaside.

The only surprise was that it wasn’t more emphatic than the final scoreline after the most one sided of first 45 minutes you’ll ever likely to witness.

An Ible header from a 7th minute corner set Guiseley on the way as they constantly hounded and pressed their lowly hosts who didn’t muster a shot in the first half.

Debutant striker Abadaki added a second after 20 minutes an only the post and bar denied Chippendale and Whitham from putting the game to bed before half time.

Inevitably after such a poor first half the hosts came out on the front foot in an attempt to get back into the game and a 30 yard strike that went in off the bar pulled one back and Marske briefly threatened an unlikely comeback.

Thankfully the Lions responded well to this threat and with a little help from the Marske keeper who had 5 minutes he’d rather forget goals from Smith and Whelan put them firmly back in control.

There was still time for Adam Boyes to score a consolation goal against his former club but nothing was going to stop The Lions from picking up a well deserved 3 points.

Lots of good individual performances today with Ible, Daly and the Irish duo of Whelan and Murphy among the best. But arguably the most heart warming performance was Spencer Harris coming on late on after 5 months out injured.

All in all an excellent away day, with friendly hosts and not a hint of the nonsense in the crowd last week with Guiseley supporters (approx 50) young and old getting behind the side in the right way.

Guiseley 2 Hyde United 3

Reduced to 10 men before half time the Lions ultimately couldn’t defy the odds against confident league leaders who played on a very weak referee.

After Chippendale hammered home Whithams saved spot kick we seemed to be on our way to repeating our feat of two weeks ago of beating the current league leaders.

However soon after the players like most of the crowd seemed distracted by events off the field and allowed too much space for the visitors to level things. More of this ongoing crowd trouble issue later

Then just before half time on loan Barnsley full back Kareem Hassan-Smith was shown a red card on his debut for bringing down his opponent in the box. 2-1 to Hyde. There was still time for Cassidy to see his shot rebound to safety off the inside of the post and be scrambled to safety.

That left the Lions with a mountain to climb in the second half and after Hyde fired home a third on 73 minutes effectively ended Guiseley’s spirited attempt to defy the odds.

Late substitutions followed included Adam Haw who’s 25 yard shot was deflected past the visiting keeper.

In keeping with his performance the referee awarded a miserly 4 minutes of added time. This added to his 6 bookings for Guiseley some of which were extremely harsh and just 1 for Hyde who was lucky not to be red carded for subsequently diving, getting in the way of a promising Guiseley attack and failing to stop the game when crowd trouble broke out made for an afternoon to forget for the man in black.

That said the better team on the day won with too many players scoring 6s and 7s when 8s and 9s were needed.

Bad day at the office but on to Marske and no need for panic measures.

However serious measures are now called up on to rid the club of these wood be hooligans who are ruining the match day experience for many.

Given the clubs new policy for under 18s I was shocked when I arrive at 2pm to see the ground already full of under 18s in far greater numbers than there has been previously. Clearly Nethermoor is now the go to place on Saturdays for these idiots who have little interest in the game and are dragging the club’s reputation down with them.

Not to mention marauding around in the town centre before and after games and intimidating passers by and visiting supporters alike.

It’s little consolation that they got their comeuppance from Hydes slightly older gang of Stone Island wearing youths.

Social media in the weeks leading up to the game made it clear that this was on the cards and yet bizarrely there was no segregation and the police only arrived when things had calmed down.

Somebody is going to get hurt. The Guiseley not so massive took refuge in the stands where typically the less mobile members of our genuine supporters sit. This is unacceptable and will inevitably lead to true supporters staying away if the club doesn’t invest in proper security.

Guiseley 1 South Shields 0

The Lions just shaded a pulsating and entertaining encounter against league leaders and full time South Shields and we’re rewarded with a late Whitham penalty to claim all 3 points.

Credit goes to both teams given the atrocious combination of mud, rain, wind and hail. Welcome to Guiseley Shane Smeltz.

The Lions looked stretched at the back early on against a lively South Shields forward line and keeper Mason twice saved well when the visitors shot with venom.

But this wasn’t one way traffic and The Lions never let South Shields settle at the back.

In the second half playing against the wind Guiseley adopted a more direct style with the long balls holding up in the wind and allowing our forwards to unsettle the visiting defence.

The Lions were rewarded twelve minutes from time when Whitham’s constant trickery forced a trip in the box. Despite some serious gamesmanship aimed at unsettling him he remain composed and fired home the penalty to send Nethermoor into action in to a frenzy that was maintained until the final whistle blew.

Meppen-Walters was outstanding at the back and as mentioned Whitham was a constant menace whilst Daly was, well Ross Daly constantly breaking down opposition advances but this was a tremendous team effort that got it’s just desserts given only a last minute goal denied us a point at South Shield when we had more than matched our more wealthy opponents.

The visiting supporters I spoke to were a debt lot here for a good day out so it’s disappointing that at the end of the game their supporters coach was subject to goading and apparently objects being thrown by 20/30 youths running amok on Netherfield Road. That isn’t the Guiseley way and the club need to ensure busting supporters do not face such nonsense in the future.

That aside a tremendous victory that lifts the Lions ton7th in the table with Lancaster City the visitors on Tuesday.

Guiseley 2 Nantwich Town 1

The Lions came from behind to win a little cosily in the end.

Starting slowly they could have been a couple down before the visitors took the lead on 9 minutes. At that stage c the Lions looks all at sea at the back and couldn’t match their youthful poppy for energy levels.

The game scrappy and a little feisty with few clear cut chances but slowly Guiseley started to pose a threat and late in the half Kellett pounced on a rebound to put the Lions level.

It was much better from the word go in the second half and Lewis Whitham worked himself an opening to fire past the Nantwich keeper after 48 minutes to score what proved the winning goal.

The Lions created numerous opportunities to seal the game but a couple of efforts were blocked and others headed over the bar. The visitors ran out of steam and didn’t seriously threaten an equaliser.

All in all a satisfactory performance and a precious 3 points but we need to address our sluggish starts as better teams will punish us more clinically.