Guiseley banished the memory of the season’s first defeat at Southport with a deserved 3-1 win against a tenacious Spennymoor side at Nethermoor this evening.
Two more goals from Aaron Martin and a first for Lee Shaw saw the Lions home against a spirited Town team who were playing only their second game of the new season due to stadium works at their Brewery Field home not being complete to enable games to be hosted yet.
In a fairly even first twenty minutes where clear cut openings were at a premium Martin went closest to breaking the deadlock but Brad Nicholson’s cross was just out of reach.
As the home side picked up the pace visiting keeper Matthew Gould made a timely catch with Martin and Scott Garner in attendance.
In reply Benjamin McKenna finished off a promising move for Spennymoor but his wayward finish was way over the bar.
The stalemate was finally broken on 31 minutes as a George Cantrill throw floated over Gould and his defenders to the far post where Martin finished with a powerful downward header.
Buoyed by the goal the home side took the game to Town but Spennymoor pegged them back on 34 minutes when a shot from Andrew Johnson was cleared off the line only for the ball to cannon off George Sykes-Kenworthy and into the net for the equaliser.
The Brewers had their best spell after the restart and forced several corners which ended with Johnson sliding in to meet McKenna’s cross but his effort took a slight deflection before clipping the bar and going over for another corner which came to nought.
Having survived the onslaught Guiseley forced another throw on the right level with the eighteen yard line to put the Town defence under pressure once again, this time with Scott Garner’s flick on setting up Martin for his second of the game with a clinical header into the top corner on 47 minutes.
Another set piece caught Town in two minds once again and as they struggled to clear their lines Hamza Bencherif’s shot was deflected into the path of Shaw to shoot past Gould from close in with fourteen minutes remaining and seal a third win from four starts for the Nethermoor men.
Martin was then just centimetres short of his second hat trick in four games as Gould’s wayward punch under pressure from Shaw sailed across the six-yard box.
As time ran down the home side should have had a fourth when another long throw was flicked on by Garner to Aram Soleman but the young midfielder fluffed his lines from two yards out.
Not that it mattered as the Lions maintained their impressive start to the season withn nine points from a possible twelve that sees them tucked in behind leaders York City with just a point separating the two Yorkshire rivals.
Attendance: 774
Team:
1 George Sykes-Kenworthy
2 Reiss McNally
3 Brad Nicholson
4 George Cantrill
5 Hamza Bencherif
6 Scott Garner
7 Lee Shaw
8 Jamie Spencer
9 Aaron Martin
10 Aram Soleman
11 Gabriel Johnson
Subs:
12 Kaine Felix
13 Lloyd Allinson
14 Dylan Barkers
15 Kennedy Digie
16 Sam Scrivens