GUISBOROUGH TOWN 0 WHITLEY BAY 5
Saturday 24th October
Whitley made it three wins in a row with a crushing victory over Guisborough Town on a wet afternoon at the King George V Ground. It was a dominant display by Whitley but it took them an hour to convert their superiority into goals.
Luke Taylor returned to the starting eleven in place of Liam Gillesphey who joined Ashington on Friday but that was the only change from the side that defeated Newton Aycliffe in midweek.
Playing their first away game of the month, Whitley were quickly on the attack as they looked to put pressure on a Guisborough side whose manager parted company with the club earlier in the week. When the home side broke downfield, they produced what turned out to be a rare attack but although a good ball was played across the face of goal it drifted harmlessly out of play.
Whitley then put the hosts under sustained pressure, with two shots from inside the box being cleared off the line before a third attempt, from Adam Shanks, went just the wrong side of the post. Moments later Richard Coulson fired narrowly over the bar.
After this lively opening, the game settled down with most of the action being confined to midfield until the half hour when Matty Weirs and then Coulson both forced saves from Steavens. Coulson was causing problems with his pace down the left and his cross into the goalmouth eight minutes before the break was headed clear just ahead of Shanks. Whitley’s next attack was brought to a halt when Shanks fell in the box and was harshly booked for what referee Chris Ellis deemed to be simulation in an attempt to win a penalty.
Whitley continued to have the better of the game and Weirs was not far off target with a shot from the edge of the box but at the interval the game remained goal less.
Guisborough posed more of a threat in the early stages of the second period and it took a timely tackle by Darren Hamilton to prevent a clear run on goal. However that was a rare attack and Chris Bannon was a virtual spectator for much of the second half. Whitley soon regained the upper hand and were causing the home side problems down both wings and through the centre of midfield. On the hour mark, Scott Lowery only just failed to get on the end of a free kick played in from the right with the goal at his mercy but the pressure was mounting and the opening goal came less than sixty seconds later, when Craig McFarlane’s cross from the right found Lewis Orrell completely unmarked in front of goal and he comfortably slotted the ball home.
Six minutes later, Coulson played the ball down the line to McFarlane but his cross into the box was cleared. Whitley were repeatedly finding space with attacking moves down the right and the second goal came from a ball played into the six yard box from the wing where Shanks side footed it home.
Heads had now dropped among the home side and their afternoon went from bad to worse two minutes later when captain Callum Martin was sent off for a bad challenge on Matty Weirs.
It took Whitley less than three minutes to add a third goal and it came when Shanks was played through on the left and he cut in before unleashing a shot that flew into the net past Steavens to put the result beyond doubt.
Whitley made use of all three substitutes in the closing stages with Jon Weirs getting his first action since recovering from a knee injury. Kieran Brannen had only just come off the bench when with four minutes remaining he received the ball on the right and raced into the box before firing it high into the net to make it 4-0.
It had been raining incessantly during the second half and for the Priorymen the final whistle could not come soon enough but Whitley were not finished yet and deep into stoppage time Lewis Orrell completed the rout slotting home the fifth goal after good work from Brannen.
There were impressive performances throughout the Bay side as they recorded their biggest ever victory over Guisborough with Adam Shanks reaching a personal landmark scoring his 65th goal for the club and bringing him level with Adam Johnston as the club’s joint tenth top scorer of all time.
WHITLEY BAY: Bannon, McFarlane, Dunn, Lowery, Hamilton, Taylor, Orrell, Robinson(J Weirs 71mins), Shanks, M Weirs(Colquhoun 80mins), Coulson(Brannen 84mins)
Substitutes not used: Lister, Wilson
Cautions: Lowery, Shanks, Dunn
Referee: Chris Ellis
Attendance: 247
