Bishop Auckland v Guisborough Town

Recap

Bishops fought back from two goals down midway through the second half to secure a point in a hard-fought encounter with Guisborough Town as Heritage Park saw its first action of 2024.

The visitors were looking to cement their place in the top six of the league and frustrated Bishops for large parts of the first half with their front foot pressing and organisation.  James Risbrough had to be alert enough to use his pace to thwart an early Guisborough attack before a good move provided Henderson with Bishops’ first clear effort on goal, the centre-forward firing the ball straight at Robert Dean when well-placed to score.

Ryan Catterick was seeing a lot of the ball at his feet as Bishops were forced back regularly in order to try and build some momentum in the game, and it was a rare mistake by the ball-playing keeper to gift Tymon the opener just before the 40-minute mark.  The burly forward intercepted an attempted pass across the goal and rolled the ball into an empty net despite Catterick’s desperate lunge.

Bishops finished the half with a flurry of chances, Bartliff having a header deflected narrowly over the bar and a scramble in the box eventually cleared to safety by a Guisborough defender.

On 63 minutes Bishops’ found themselves in unchartered territory this season and two goals adrift at home, this time a long ball from Dean which was not dealt with by the heart of the defence and Tymon nipped in to roll the ball under Catterick.  An immediate response was needed to lift the team and crowd and this duly arrived just two minutes later when Bartliff had a shot tipped over the bar by Dean.  The loose ball from the resultant corner was buried into the top corner by Danni Lay.

Guisborough almost got a third goal but a low shot fizzed past Catterick’s post.  The home side kept plugging away and the reward came in the 90^th minute when a free kick was played out wide to Johnson and the ball was chipped into the box for half-time substitute Aaron Brown to powerfully head under the body of Dean.

Bishops had not hit the heights so often seen this season but were the far happier side at full-time with a point that extends the lead at the top of the table with Shildon not in action.

Match report by Gavin Hadden