Guiseley began their defence of the West Riding County Cup with a comfortable victory over Tadcaster Albion, who play two leagues below the Lions in the Northern Counties East Premier Division, and although the North Yorkshire side acquitted themselves well with some neat football it was a largely one-sided game settled by two class strikes from Danny Boshell and Andy Holdsworth.

Fielding a full-strength team after having no game on Saturday, the home side went ahead on twenty minutes. A short corner was played to Boshell on the angle of the area and he looked up and curled a peach of a shot into the far top corner despite the efforts of two defenders to keep the ball out. The second goal came eleven minutes into the second half after Holdsworth played a one-two with Kevin Gall and hit a sweet shot beyond Arran Reid to open his account for Guiseley and clinch the tie.

Gavin Rothery (twice), Simon Ainge, and Dave Merris had gone close in the first half and Albion had keeper Reid to thank for pulling off a string of second-half saves from Joe O’Neill, Rothery again, Burns and Gall  to deny the Lions a bigger margin of victory.

Not that the Lions had it all their own way, particularly on the stroke of half-time when Carl Stewart got the better of Simon Ainge, but with only Steve Drench to beat he allowed the keeper to save comfortably in the end. He also brought another good save from the home custodian midway through the second half, but even when reduced to ten men for the last fifteen minutes – owing to Mark Bower’s leaving the field injured and their having used all three subs – the Lions still looked a class above the visitors.

Steve Kittrick said after the match: “I’m happy with the performance, stepping it up a gear. We’ve been guilty of taking our foot of the gas a bit lately so I was pleased that we didn’t today.”

Team:

1. Steve Drench
2. Jamie Clarke
3. Dave Merris
4. Ciaran Toner
5. Simon Ainge
6. Mark Bower
7. Andy Holdsworth 56
8. Danny Boshell 20 (Burns 55)
9. Lee Ellington (O’Neill 46)
10. Gavin Rothery (Forrest 70)
11. Kevin Gall
12. Michael Burns
13. Joe O’Neill
14. Danny Forrest
15. Simon Baldry
16. Jacob Giles

Attendance: 173