GUISELEY started to show the fruits of their pre-season labour in their 6-0 thrashing of South Shields, according to joint-manager Russ O'Neill.

The Lions warmed up for the new season in style with the thrashing of their opponents from the North East in their final friendly, including four for Gabriel Johnson.

The Lions roared into an eight-minute lead at Nethermoor through Johnson. They double their advantage in the 29th minute when great work from Kaine Felix found Aram Soleman, who finished well.

They made it 3-0 nine minutes before the break via Johnson. He completed his hat-trick a minute before the interval to make it 4-0.

Soleman secured his brace on 54 minutes to make it 5-0.

But it would be Johnson who would steal the headlines as he grabbed his fourth in the 68th minute against South Shields who start their own league campaign in the BetVictor Northern League on Saturday, August 17, two weeks after Guiseley get their own season under way.

O'Neill was delighted with the all-round team performance from his side against South Shields, adding they are playing at a high intensity.

He said: "I thought we were outstanding from start to finish.

"We were great from star to finish against a full-time team.

"Pre-season results can give you a false sense of security.

"It was an all-round good performance. I can't single anyone out. Arm has got two today and Gabriel has got four. Slowly but surely we are getting there. Our game is based on high intensity.

"Over the last seven days we have been working on ways to get the players to use one-touch finishes.

"Fair play to South Shields, I think they will have a good season and they will go up this season.

"They are two weeks behind us in the prep as their season doesn't start until two weeks after ours.

"Everything we have been trying to get into the lads has come to fruition."

Meanwhile, a second Guiseley side had a friendly run-out at the same time at Hyde United.

But it wasn't such a good result for the young Guiseley side in Greater Manchester, as they crashed to a 4-0 reverse with former Lion Joel Logan on the scoresheet twice for the hosts.

Guiseley team v South Shields: 1 George Sykes-Kenworthy (Trialist), 2 Reiss McNally, 3 A Trialist, 4 George Cantrill, 5 Hamza Bencherif (Barkers), 6 Scott Garner, 7 Kaine Felix (Shaw). 8 Jamie Spencer, 9 Aaron Martin, 10 Aram Soleman and 11 Gabriel Johnson. Subs: 12 Lee Shaw, 13 A Trialist and 14 Dylan Barkers.

Team v Hyde United: 1 A Trialist (Lambton), 2. Nick Brayshaw, 3 Nathan Newall, 4 Kennedy Digie, 5 A Trialist, 6 Will Thornton (Haw), 7 Tabish Hussain, 8 Aleks Starcenko, 9 Paul Clayton, 10 A Trialist and 11 Scott Smith. Subs: 12 Adam Haw and 13 Declan Lambton. Hyde attendance: 150