It was a crispy cold evening at Nethermoor Park but one thing that was clear was what was up for grabs on this Tuesday Northern Premier League fixture.
After a late unjustified 3:2 defeat to FC United in the previous week, newly appointed Guiseley manager Andy Welsh hoped his team would bounce back: “I believe in this group of players, last week we didn’t feel the result was justified but that happens in football. It’s not about what’s happened it’s about how you react to it and go forward.”
Guiseley triumphed against the dynamics of the game by scoring an impressive four goals against Matlock Town who played like the home side for the majority of the game. The 4:0 win put Guiseley in the playoffs and four points ahead of Matlock Town.
The game began with Matlock Town holding lots of the ball, whilst they pressured Guiseley with a high press all that was created was a lot of half chances.
Guiseley remained compact and looked to nick the ball to strike on the counter throughout the game. The first chance for Guiseley came 15 minutes where a clearance found Callum Murphy who drove forward to then play Gabriel Johnson down the left channel who beat the defender to drive it across goal. Despite it being a dangerous pass, no Guiseley attacker could get on the end of it.
Tom Pratt imitated Callum Murphy shortly after by snatching the ball around the halfway line sliding Murphy through on goal who dragged his shot wide.
More pressure came from Matlock Town 25 minutes in who naively committed too many men forward leaving space for Guiseley number 1 Ollie Battersby to find Gabriel Johnson down the left side of the Pitch who faked a cross to beat the Matlock right back. Johnson then found Tom Pratt on the edge of the box who opened up his right foot to place it into the top corner.
36 minutes in Matlock midfielder John Clark takes a strike outside his foot which is deflected, forcing Battersby to shift his stance and make a save. Matlock continued to chase the game in the hopes they could go into half time all level. After a corner punched away by Battersby fell to Nathaniel Crofts who snatched at the shot and dragged it wide.
Matlock created three more good chances 5 minutes before half time which were all met with calculated blocks from Guiseley’s defence.
Going into the second half Guiseley had a task on their hands in order to change the dynamic that Matlock ended the first half with.
Manager Andy Welsh discussed his half time decisions to keep the game under control: “I felt we needed to shorten our game a little bit, we were keeping the ball well then last minute we decided to go long with it and just give them the ball back. For me, football is about bravery and taking risk’s so I didn’t believe a change of player was needed, but a change in our approach to the game.
Matlock came out fighting with an instant attempt on goal from the penalty area which was excellently saved by Battersby.
Totally against the run of play Gabriel Johnson dummies a shot past two Matlock defenders and strikes it across goal low and hard to make it 2:0 60 minutes into the game to lift some pressure off.
In the 80th minute a lofted ball over the top found Matlock defender Adam yates on the back foot against a determined Gabriel Johnson who snatched it but toppled over. Matlock number 1 Jonathan Margetts came to claim but fumbled it, but before it could go out for a corner Tom Pratt on the by line managed to finesse it in to make it 3:0. The tight angle in which he still found the net was a reflection of Guiseley’s quality when they did have the ball on rare occasions.
Gabriel Johnson began taking advantage of Matlock diving in as an impressive run beating five players put him through only to drag it wide with a tired shot.
Despite being 3:0 down at the 85th minute mark, Matlock continued to plug away only to be met with a compact Guiseley defence that blocked any serious attempt on goal.
In the 94th minute Matlock’s heads had dropped resulting in a lazy tackle to give Guiseley a free kick right on the edge on the box. The free kick could not beat the wall however it dropped to Prince Ekpolo who hit it first time with his left foot from the edge of the box bottom right to make it 4:0 to Guiseley to win the game.
Overall, the score does not do Matlock justice as they pressured Guiseley for most of the game. Guiseley’s defence was commendable as they held on and were extremely effective in finding gaps in the Matlock back line.
Andy Welsh gives his thoughts on his team steadily improving
Callum Murphy and Gabriel Johnson proved pivotal in exposing the space in behind and were nothing short of clinical in front of goal.
Andy Welsh finished by saying: “Good teams don’t always need to play fantastic football to get results, it’s about consistency and resilience for 90 minutes to get the job done.”
