The Lions sprang straight to life after less than a minute, with Jake Cassidy’s effort deflecting towards the head of Donald Chimalilo, but the header was deflected out for a corner that ultimately came to nothing.
Just shy of the eight minute mark, the home side had another shot at the lead, with John Johnston capitalising on a mistake from Whitby’s Jonathan Burn to get into a one-on-one battle with keeper Shane Bland, but the keeper was successful and was able to make a save and get the ball away from the danger area.
Another chance fell on 15 minutes courtesy of Andy Kellett, who was only able to fire his shot over the bar from inside the box, a further glimmer of hope for a Guiseley side who so far had the better of the game.
Another chance came and went for Guiseley on the 23 minute mark, when Chimalilo was able to fool Bland and chip the ball towards the head of Cassidy in front of a somewhat open net, but the forward’s header would end up hitting the roof of the net, with another header from the fan-favourite a couple of minutes later being caught by Bland after a strong delivery from Kellett.
10 minutes later amidst some moments of the visitors growing into the game, Ethan Vaughan broke down the wing for the Lions and whipped in a superb cross that narrowly missed the head of Chimalilo, preventing what some saw as a certain goal and keeping Guiseley at bay with another missed opportunity.
The deadlock was finally broken just before half-time, with the Lions winning a corner that was whipped in by Johnson before being powerfully headed home by Spencer Harris, sending relief round Nethermoor.
The lead was doubled in stoppage time thanks to Cassidy, who took the ball in the box and powered it past Bland and into the bottom left-hand corner, sending the Lions in with a two goal advantage at half-time, with an appetite for more after the break.
The early stages of the second-half were a quiet affair with no events of note taking place, with the only one worth mentioning being a long-range effort from Vaughan that flew well over the bar and into the car park, with the rest of this portion of the game consisting of the Lions largely trying to consolidate their lead.
Despite this, the Seasiders got one back on 57 minutes, with captain Dan Rowe getting the last touch after a scramble in the box to bring some life back into the game and revitalise the visitors.
Following this the game became a cagey affair, with both sides defending hard and shutting down each other’s attacking threats, with the most notable moment being a string run from John Johnston on 66 minutes that led to an attempted cross from a difficult angle going wide of the goal.
Against the run of play, Guiseley nearly restored their two goal advantage on 76 minutes, with substitute Lewis Hey making a big run through the midfield and into the box, but despite a good effort, it was all for nothing, with the shot producing a good save from Bland, with Hey having another shot saved a couple of minutes later before another from the Guiseley Academy graduate went wide in the space of seconds, keeping the game on a knife-edge moving into the later stages.
The Lions would survive a nervy finish that nearly saw Whitby equalise on a few occasions to seal their third win a row and continue their largely positive start to the season, with their next test being a trip to Stalybridge Celtic on Saturday.
Guiseley 2-1 Whitby Town | Tuesday 23rd August 2022 | Nethermoor
Attendance: 622
Team: 1. Kyle Trenerry, 2. Ethen Vaughan, 3. George Smith (C), 4. Luke Dean, 5. Jameel Ible, 6. Spencer Harris, 7. John Johnston (87′ Haw), 8. Charlie Wood, 9. Jake Cassidy, 10. Donald Chimalilo (60′ Hey) and 11. Andy Kellett (69′ Cartwright).
Subs: 12. Ethan Cartwright, 14. Lewis Hey, 15. Adam Haw, 16. Jerome Greaves and 17. Jorge Sikora.
