It was the same old story as Guiseley went toe-to-toe with AFC Fylde at the impressive Mill Farm Stadium but failed to fnd the finishing touch to craft an equaliser after having gone two goals behind early on. Read how the home side eventually ran out winners in our match report sponsored by BuildADrive.com.
The Lions went behind after just fifteen minutes at when Ben Tollitt took advantage of some lapse defending and put the home side ahead and it looked ominous for the visitors as Danny Whitehead doubled the Coasters’ advantage eight minutes later with a well taken finish from the edge of the box.
Up to that point the visitors had pushed their higher placed opponents on a couple of occassions and finally found a way through on the half hour courtesy of new loan signing Thierry Latty-Fairweather on his debut who hit a rising shot into the roof of the net from the apex of the six yard box after efforts from Adam Haw and Jamie Spencer had been blocked to halve the deficit.
New signing Dom Tear looked lively and was linking up well with Ollie Brown down the right but it was goalkeeper Owen Mason who made two vital stops to deny Tollitt and Jack Evans and keep his side in the game just before the break.
It was much the same story in the second half with the Lions on the front foot for much of the half although Sam Osbourne hit the post and that man Tollitt bounced one off the angle of upright and bar when Fylde managed to find two openings.
The key moment for Guiseley came with thirty minutes remaining when Andy Hollins was shown a second yellow card for a late challenge leaving his teamates to negotiate the final half hour, which they did and continued to forage for an equaliser. But the nearest that they came was when Hey’s half volley was cleared off the line by a Fylde defender.
So another nearly but not quite performance from the Lions against one of the pre-season promotion favourites but with only four league wins out of 21 games the onus is on the management team to find a striker (or strikers) who can convert the inumerable chances that are being created into goals.
The departure of leading scorer Jordan Thewlis to Spennymoor last week certainly didn’t help matters but with the all of the other teams around Guiseley, apart from Farsley, winning this afternoon the Lions’ National League North status is coming under serious pressure.
