In a Guisborough line up that featured two Woods – Gary and
Lewis – Spennymoor can perhaps lay claim to a Wood of greater fame in Anne
Wood. Whilst the name may not immediately ring any bells, we’ve all heard of
the Teletubbies and anyone who is a parent of very young children will have
heard of In the night garden. Spennymoor
born Wood was the creative mind behind both international hits. Whilst it is
claimed that Ridley Scott found inspiration in the Billingham skyline for his
Bladerunner movie, we can only speculate over what Anne Wood found in
Spennymoor to inspire her Teletubby creations.
After one minute of tonight’s match, it was Guisborough
suppporters – not the Tellytubbies – that were emitting sounds of Ey oh as the visitors virtually walked
the ball into the net from close range. It must have left Guisborough manager
Chris Hardy clenching his fists in frustration as Anthony Peacock was given all
the time in the world to stroke the ball home. You can ill afford to give a
side of Spennymoor’s calibre a goal start. Last season the Priorymen were the
only side in the division to take four points off Spennymoor. Yes, you did read
that correctly. We were officially Spennymoor’s bogey side, a fact that was met
with great hilarity from my three year old son as I readied myself to head to
the match. In each of last year’s encounters Guisborough pressed the ball and
tracked back wonderfully to limit Spennymoor’s chances on goal. In turn, as Moors pressed forward themselves Guisborough,
with several speedy players, were able to run from deep and exploit the gaps
that developed over the course of ninety minutes. Perhaps this was intended to
be Chris Hardy’s tactic tonight, but it was cut to shreds after barely a minute
and totally changed the dynamic of the game before it had ever really begun.
Spennymoor are a class act. They move the ball around brilliantly
and are totally committed to playing proper football. Lots of teams try to play
football, but often cannot build up the pace and momentum required to open up
sides. In Anthony Peacock, Spennymoor have a player that is perfectly suited to
his side being a goal up. He was lethal on the break and at his wriggling,
tricky best. With such a low centre of gravity, Peacock is able turn on a
sixpence and switch play in an instant. This was the best I had seen him play
tonight and it was easy to see why he had graced the professional game and difficult
to understand why he is not still playing at a higher level.
Of course, Spennymoor have so many standout players and if
some are below par, they have the wonderful luxury of bringing another one off
the bench. Having had such a terrible start to the game, Guisborough did well
to hold the score to 1-0 at half-time and there was a hope that perhaps with a
more forceful second half showing they could pinch something from the game.
These hopes were dashed immediately when substitute Cogden saw his speculative
effort go low into the corner.
With Guisborough pressing forward and Spennymoor hungry for
further goals, the Guisborough defence began to look more exposed than Prince
Harry on a Las Vegas jaunt. Guisborough never expected to win, but the quantity of second half goals was a touch disappointing.
The excellent Mark Davison bagged a second half hat-trick and I can foresee him
scoring a lot of goals this term if he is given this level of service. In
truth, with Spennymoor if you snuff out one threat another seems to pop up. It rather
reminded me of playing Whack a mole.
If you had told me after three games that we would have won
two of them and lost to Spennymoor, I would have taken that. Tomorrow sees us
travel to Shildon – a side in red hot form. Victory will be difficult, but this
is the FA Cup so let’s hope for a little magic. As for Spennymoor, well – they remain
the side to beat. As a final point it is
perhaps worth noting that as well as the Teletubbies, Anne Wood also produced a
programme called The blips.
Guisborough fans will hope that this was all this was tonight after an
otherwise encouraging start to the season.
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