REPORT BY: DAVE ROBERTSON

GUISELEY got pre-season underway with a thumping 6-1 win at a rainy Dennyfield on Tuesday night.

Paul Phillips used the opportunity to give minutes to a wide variety of players but started with a strong looking XI, spearheaded by Tom Denton, and captained by Liam Tongue. The outcome was that the Lions quickly put the game beyond Thackley, with three goals in the first fifteen minutes.

Denton got the scoring underway with a stooping header from a Tom Pratt cross after just 4 minutes, and the two combined again two minutes later – a one-two to set Pratt clean away. Tom coolly lobbed Luke Wilson in the Thackley goal to double the Lions’ advantage.

On fourteen minutes, Denton proved he can finish with his feet too, slotting home after being picked out by Bailey Conway. After a relative period of calm, Callum Chippendale added a fourth before the break.

During the interval, the rains came. Four minutes into an increasingly sodden second half, captain Liam Tongue got his name on the scoresheet to make it five. At that point, six changes were made as Jack Dyche, Lawrence Sorhaindo and four trialists joined the fray.

Dyche would add another with a cool finish, and Thackley did manage to pull one back as a rare foray forward culminated in a goalmouth scramble, allowing Kieran Haigh to bundle the ball over the line to give the hosts a small amount of cheer.

The rest of the game played out under darkening skies but with a performance like this, no major injuries save for the early cautious withdrawal of Courtney Meppen-Walters, and some promising trialists, there were rays of sunshine for the Lions.

Guiseley: | 1. Danny Taberner, 2. Aiden Walker, 3. Reece Kendall, 4. Prince Ekpolo, (Jack Dyche, 49’) 5. Jameel Ible, (Trialist, 52’) 6. Courtney Meppen-Walters, (Trialist, 12’,(Trialist, 59’)) 7. Tom Pratt (Trialist, 49’), 8. Bailey Conway (Trialist, 49’), 9. Tom Denton (Trialist, 50’) 10. Liam Tongue (C) (Trialist, 51’) and 11. Callum Chippendale (Trialist, 49’)