Guide Post succumbed to a strong display from a well organised and highly motivated Blyth Rangers side playing at the top of their form. Guide Post welcomed back Jack Taylor after two weeks out with injury and unavailability but had to do without Adam Boyd with a niggling achilles problem which will keep him out of action for at least three weeks. Also missing was Aaron Dunning through illness.
Guide Post still started the game with high expectations but it was clear from the early encounters that Blyth Rangers had strengthened their squad from last season and were proving to be strong opposition. Blyth took the lead after twenty minutes but this only spurred GuidePost into life and after twenty eight minutes they equalised with an excellent goal created by Connor Humble winning a 50/50 ball and feeding it into Ryan Young who threaded a neat pass to Reece Bosomworth on the edge of the box who struck a first time shot to the right of the stranded Blyth keeper. Leading up to half time Ryan was brought down and won a free kick outside the box. He got up to strike a fierce free kick which took a wicked deflection off a Blyth defender and bounced into the corner of the net leaving the keeper stranded.
Half time came with Guide Post fortunate to be in a 2 - 1 lead. Luke McCallum had pulled off one superb save in the first half tipping a shot just over the bar. Liam Halliday replaced Luke in goals and Jack Sanderson came on for Lee Robinson. The team was reshuffled slightly with Reece Brown moving into midfield and George being pushed up front for Brad Southern. Unfortunately the changes weren't enough to take a grip on the match. Blyth responded strongly in the second half and won a penalty after the left winger was brought down just inside the box. Blyth's no.14 struck the penalty cleanly to make it 2 - 2.
GuidePost weren't linking up as well as previously and although plenty of possession was being won, no clear chances were being created and those that came along weren't taken.
After 55 minutes Blyth took the lead in a goal mouth scramble.
Ryan Young was putting in his usual amount of hard work but was clearly becoming frustrated when he made a terrible attempt at a two footed tackle which could have seriously injured his Blyth opponent. Luckily Ryan is no Jackie Chan and no contact was made with his opponent. Ryan was substituted as he was clearly about to get a red card if he stayed on the pitch.
After this incident Blyth struck a hopeful high ball into the box which Liam was unable to handle due to the low sun (baseball cap needed for next week !!) A grateful Blyth striker ran through for a tap in to finish the scoring.
Guide Post showed great character plugging away to the very end. George Allsopp put in a particularly good performance up front and down the left with some great runs taking on the Blyth right back and getting the better of him at regular intervals. He was deservedly given the man of the match award.
Blyth ended up deserved winners and Guide Post have to work hard at training this week to get their team play and passing game back on track for next Sunday's league game with FC Morpeth Barca.
