Guiseley 4 Blyth Spartans 0 - Lions roar to opening day victory over Spartans

After the match Guiseley joint-manager Russ O’Neill was pleased with what he saw.

He said: “It’s an ideal start, to take the lead so early, we then just kept going, obviously we wanted to begin the season with a win, goals scored and a clean sheet means we can be happy.”

The Lions began perfectly when they took the lead with less than a minute gone, Kaine Felix was dragged down in the area and Lebrun Mbeka scored confidently from the spot.

There was consistent pressure from the hosts, with Hamza Bencherif having a header saved, then Mark Howarth saw a long-range effort pushed over the crossbar impressively by Blyth keeper Brendan Pearson.

The pressure continued to be applied by Guiseley with Felix doing well to beat two defenders, he tried to round Pearson who was just able to get a hand on the ball and it eventually went out for a goal-kick.

Just before the break Guiseley doubled their lead, a Brad Nicholson cross was placed into the top corner by Bencherif whose headed effort left Pearson with no chance.

Any chance of a comeback for the visitors looked even more unlikely when moments into the second-half, Matthew Elsdon was sent off for a second bookable offence, after pulling Wafula back.

Guiseley added a third soon after, Felix got the goal he deserved, beating Pearson as the ball trickled over the line.

The Lions kept on the attack and added a fourth with a quarter of the game to go, Mark Howarth ran from the halfway line and took his time, placing his shot into the bottom left-hand corner.

Ten-man Farsley Celtic lost 2-1 at Spennymoor United in Conference North.

Experienced keeper Steve Drench was dismissed on 39 minutes for handling outside the box. Celts’ consolation goal was scored on 83 minutes by Jake Charles.