ALTHOUGH Guisborough Town’s scheduled match at league leaders Dunston UTS on Saturday was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch – two days earlier the club had the honour of hosting a training session for one of the biggest names in football.

Guisborough opened their excellent facilities at the KGV Stadium to Manchester City Under-18s, who trained at the ground on Thursday priory to playing Middlesbrough Under-18s in the final of the Premier League Under-18 Cup Final at the Riverside Stadium.

The Manchester City visit provided yet more evidence of Guisborough’s growing reputation among Premier League clubs. Guisborough Town Chairman Don Cowan commented, “Once again we were very happy to make available the use of our superb facilities at the KGV to a Premier League club – as we did for Liverpool a couple of seasons ago.

“When Manchester City approached us and asked us to let their Under-18 side use the KGV facilities priory to their Under-18s Cup Final against their Boro counterparts at the Riverside Stadium, we were delighted to accommodate the young City starlets of the future.”

“The Manchester City officials who came were very complimentary about the condition of our pitch and the excellence of our facilities. This is all thanks to the marvellous work of our great friends at sponsors at CLS and our volunteer ground staff. It is a great indication of our growing reputation among the higher echelons of the footballing world that we have been sought out once again for the use of our KGV facilities and we were very happy to oblige once again,” added Don.

And the result of the final against Boro U-18s? It was a 1-0 victory for Manchester City after a very close match. The Manchester City Academy Twitter Site featured news and a video of their visit to the KGV Stadium.