Guisborough Town 1, Liversedge 4 (Buildbase FA Vase – Second Round)

A FOUR-GOAL second half comeback by West Yorkshire side Liversedge proved just too much for Guisborough Town to handle as they were knocked out of the FA Vase Second Round at the KGV Stadium on Saturday.

For the first hour of the game, the Priorymen had more than held their own against their high-flying North East Counties Premier Division opponents and were good value for their 1-0 lead from a well-worked move finished off smartly by defender/midfielder Paul Young in the 38th minute.

It was a flowing, incisive move with Shawn Spozio finding Steve Roberts beautifully out on the right and Roberts put over a brilliant cross for Young to storm forward and strike the ball first time into the right corner of the Liversedge net. But exactly on the hour mark came a pivotal moment of the game when a linesman’s flag for offside ruled out a Harry Thompson tap-in which would have doubled Guisborough’s lead.

Guisborough winger Steve Roberts, who had supplied the pull-back pass to the onrushing Thompson, could be heard loudly protesting to the linesman that, as the furthest man forward, he (Steve Roberts) wasn’t offside and neither, argued Roberts, was Thompson as he moved forward to supply the finishing touch. It was so near yet so far for Guisborough and, as often happens, their disappointment at the disallowed goal was doubled just five minutes later as Liversedge equalised when Alfie Raw scored easily from a square ball pass across the penalty area.

Then in the 72rd minute Liversedge edged ahead when winger Ollie Fearon cut in from the right and shot to make it 2-1 to the visitors. In the 83rd minute Liversedge virtually clinched the tie when Guisborough ‘keeper Jaan Yaqub was stranded in no-man’s land as he rushed out to thwart an attack but Paul Walker got there first and slotted home for 3-1. The scoreline then took on a distinctly flattering look for the visitors as they added a fourth goal in the second minute of time added on when Joe Walton slotted home past Yaqub for 4-1 to Liversedge.

Guisborough were left to rue a classic "what if" scenario had that second "goal" from Thompson not been disallowed – but in the end Liversedge proved too strong for the Priorymen in the last half hour of the game. After the game new Guisborough Town manager Steve Bell, in charge for his first competitive match, said: “The first half was quite a cagey affair but I thought we warmed to the game as the half wore on and probably deserved our 1-0 lead. But in the second half I thought we just sat in for far too long and even at 1-0 up I thought we should have got up the pitch better.

“I think both teams suffered a bit from not having played for four or five weeks but when you’re playing against a side as direct as Liversedge you just can’t afford to sit back for long periods as we did. It was good for me to actually be involved in a competitive game at last and it gave me an opportunity to learn a lot about what we have actually got in the team and what we might need going forward."