Guiseley AFC Ladies 4 – 1 Scunthorpe
On Sunday Guiseley entertained Scunthorpe who battled creditably but were unable to prevent Guiseley ultimately running out comfortable 4-1 winners.
Results elsewhere meant that the win was enough to enable Guiseley to move to the top of the division although some other teams do have a game in hand.
There were again several changes to the Guiseley team and it is testament to the strength in depth of the squad that despite 6 players being unavailable due to illness & injury Guiseley were able to name a strong matchday squad.
The game started with neither team initially able to establish dominance in the hot conditions but Guiseley started to take control and it did not come as a surprise when captain Michelle Walsh was able to break through from midfield and score with a shot into the far corner of the goal.
Scunthorpe responded well and some sloppy defending by Guiseley allowed forward Sue Hunsley to equalise.
Guiseley quickly re-asserted their superiority and within 2 minutes of conceding the equaliser a flowing move was neatly finished by Tanya Rich on her home debut. Guiseley continued to press but a combination of good defending, excellent goalkeeping and wayward finishing meant that half-time arrived with Guiseley holding a 2-1 lead.
The second half started in much the same way and Tanya Rich scored her second goal of the game with a clinical finish to make the score 3-1 despite Scunthorpe claiming that she was in an offside position.
Any doubt over the validity of the previous goal was totally eclipsed after 55 minutes when a good passing move was given an end product by Tanya Rich who completed her hat-trick with an extremely high class finish into the top corner from well outside the penalty area.
At 4-1 Guiseley perhaps took their foot off the peddle a little but this was probably to be expected in the heat against opponents who competed fully until the final whistle.
After a good start to the season Guiseley now need to stay at the top of the table and the nature of some of the play suggests that the players are still capable of further improvement.
Team: Boswell, Burnham, Zserdicky, Fildes, Richardson, Welham, Bates (Landricombe), Walsh, Rich (Smith), Hulme (Parker), Proud.
