Shildon 1 – 1 Guisborough
It is a curiosity of modern Britain that however many shops
are being boarded up or however light people’s pockets are in the financial
crisis, two types of shop appear to be thriving – tanning studios and nail
bars. Newton Aycliffe is home to Tanz in
ere and as I drove through Shildon to take in yesterday’s FA Cup tie with
Shildon, I was faced with Browned up.
By the end of the ninety minutes, an apt description for Shildon manager Gary
Forrest’s mood might have been browned
off. Having failed to take their chances, Shildon were punished by a
fighting Guisborough side who never gave in and were rewarded with an injury
time goal to force a midweek replay.
I recently attended the Northern League Managers’ talk in at
Bishop Auckland. Included on the panel was Gary Forrest and I have to say that
I was impressed as he spoke eloquently and honestly about management and its’
challenges. Last season had been a disappointing one for Shildon, but he was at
pains to point out that for two thirds of the season he was without a full strength
squad due to injury. In the final ten games of last season, Shildon’s form was
vastly improved and with summer signings added to boost an already good squad,
Shildon have hit the ground running. They thumped Whitehaven 6-0, beat Dunston (away) 3-1 and followed this with
a 2-0 win against Newcastle Benfield. Naturally, they will have been brimming
with confidence going into this game.
Against Spennymoor on Wednesday, on several occasions
Guisborough shot themselves in the foot. After ten minutes today the Priorymen
once again gifted their opposition the initiative. A ball was played back to ‘keeper
Ben Escritt, but the pass was underhit and left Escritt in no-man’s land. As
the ball was taken around him, Escritt clipped the striker. There was no
doubting the fact that it was a penalty. Collective Guisborough hearts were in
mouths as the referee reached in his pocket. It could have been red. It was
yellow. The referee’s rationale must have been that a covering defender may
have got back with the striker taking the ball slightly wider. Escritt remained
on the field, but could do nothing about Johnston’s well struck penalty. After
a 6-0 drubbing against Spennymoor, to be a goal down in an important FA Cup tie
was a true test of character and for fifteen minutes Guisborough had to pull
together, batten down the hatches and weather a storm. At this point, Shildon’s
Chris Hughes appeared to be everywhere on the pitch. He seemed to cover every
blade of grass. He would skip past tackles, try his luck from distance, feed
players into space and latch on to through balls himself. He must have touched
the ball twice as much as any other player. For all this, Shildon could not
score another goal. With half-time approaching, Johnston went though on goal.
His goalbound shot was superbly deflected by Escritt, but the ball looped onwards.
It was an agonising moment where I fully expected the ball to ripple against
the back of the net and for the home side to celebrate. Miraculously, the ball bounced
the other side of the upright. I hardly dared to think it, never mind
articulate it, but I just started to sense that maybe this was our day.
The visitors came back in to the game in the closing stages
of the half and whilst clear chances on goal were few and far between,
Guisborough enjoyed a spell of possession which gave their defence some much
needed respite. As ever, the bullish Austin Johnson was at the forefront of
whatever was done well. He harried, pressed, pushed forward and played men into
space. He and opposition player Hughes were the eyecatching players and it felt
that whichever man won the battle would win the war.
The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tragore once noted that age
considers, youth ventures. Perhaps this was the gist of Chris Hardy’s teamtalk,
along with the important instruction to keep the ball and value it when they
had it and to pressure Shildon into giving it back when possession had been
surrendered. Guisborough’s young side, with an average age of not much more
than twenty, came more and more into the game and looked to have equalised with
twenty minutes left when McPhillips rose to head goalwards. Home keeper Finch
threw out a hand to pull off a miraculous one-handed save. This came in a spell
of Guisborough dominance and had they scored, the visitors might have gone on
to win. But minutes later, Adam Johnston appeared to have sealed the game for
Shildon when he finally beat keeper Escritt in open play but saw his driven
shot strike the base of the post before being cleared to safety. As Guisborough
manager Chris Hardy noted afterwards, had Shildon taken their chances they
could have won by a two or three goal margin. They didn’t. With their never-say-die
attitude, Guisborough threw all but the kitchen sink forward. A ball was
whipped in by Blackford from the right and as Austin Johnson leapt to head goalwards,
a home defender only succeeded in diverting the ball past his own goalkeeper.
It is a long time since I have been so pleased with a draw.
A midweek replay now beckons and despite Shildon vastly outnumbering
Guisborough in terms of efforts on goal, even one or two home fans admired
Guisborough’s fighting spirit. “I couldn’t begrudge you that goal” said one. “Your
lads never gave in. There’s a lot to admire in that”.
I wasn’t about to disagree. Wednesday’s replay will be just
as tough, but who knows what will happen? That is the beauty of the FA
Cup. On this same day in 1768, Captain
James Cook began his first voyage. Both sides will be hoping that their journey
continues beyond Wednesday and that their respective ship does not suddenly and
abruptly come in to land.
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