TEAM:SUTCLIFFE,THIRKELL,JACKSON,GRIFFITHS,RADCLIFFE,RILEY,JOHNSON,RYDER,JONES,SMITH (Steve),RYAN.S.
SUBS:HENRY,SMITH(Craig)BALL,YORATH,CHATTOE

On a bleak and cold afternoon in Radcliffe Rail started with on loan Tom Jackson at left back and Steve Smith and Matt Johnson starting for the first time operating in midfield.
The game started pretty evenly with Radcliffe creating the first opening with Liam Sutcliffe pulling off a good two-handed save and Rail replying with Will Ryder shooting narrowly wide after a good lay off from Scotty Ryan. For the next 20 minutes both teams cancelled each other out and neither side really threatened in front of goal. But on 31 minutes Rail shot themselves in the foot and gave Radcliffe the lead. We failed to clear the ball on the edge of the area and with the ball pinging around it fell kindly to Neil Chappell who’s left foot shot found the bottom corner of the net with Liam stranded on the 6 yard box helpless to do anything about it. Radcliffe 1 Rail 0
This seem to lift the home side and for the next 10 minutes Rail were encamped in their own half and were struggling to create any sort of chances. Radcliffe were creating only half chances with most of the shots either sailing over the top of the bar or being blocked by our defenders and going for corners. However shortly before half time we did manage to create a chance. The ball was worked well down our left hand side and the final pass found Jonesy in the area but his shot was wide of the mark. Half Time: Radcliffe 1 Rail 0
At the start of the second half we made 2 changes - Matt Johnson & Tom Griffiths were replaced by Steve Ball and Dave Henry.
Rail started the second half quite brightly but unfortunately there was no end product as it seemed as though Ben Jones was operating as our soul striker with Scotty Ryan helping out. Radcliffe seemed to rely on counter-attacking and it was on one such occassion that Steve Ball found himself in the referees notebook. It all started about with a throw in for Rail virtually on the goalline. It was a poor throw in and the Radcliffe player ran half the length of the pitch and looked liked causing us problems but Bally obstructed him and was promptly shown the yellow card. Shortly after we created our best chance of the game. A hopeful ball down the middle missed all the Radcliffe defenders and Jonesy ran after the ball and just managed to get it before the advancing keeper. Unfortunately Jonesy could not do a lot with it and his shot was smoothered by the keeper and cleared to safety. Although Rail were having a lot of possession nothing was really being created although Steve Ball seemed to gee the players up with his attacks down our left and on one such run down the middle he got a little excited and his shot went way wide. Radcliffe seemed happy to absorb our pressure and kill time. However Owen Roberts tested the referees patience and after taking sometime to take a throw in the referee had had enough and showed him the yellow card for time wasting. There was then a substitution made by both sides with Craig Smith coming on for the tiring Steve Smith and Radcliffes Steve Howson being replaced by Adam Roscoe. Rail were now pressing Radcliffe back and on one such attack a clumsy challenge from behind by Craig Dawson on one of our players resulted in the second Radcliffe player going into the book. In search of an an equaliser James Riley was pushed into the front line to add a bit of height to the attack and despite numerous balls from corners, throw-ins and free kicks he failed to make any impact. The only real threat to the Radcliffe goal came when a deflected Dan Thirkell cross looped over the keeper and unfortunately for us cannoned off the post and cleared. Shortly after the referee blew his whistle for full time. Radcliffe Boro’ 1 Harrogate Railway 0
MY COMMENTS: Although we are not conceding a hatful of goals anymore there aren’t many coming from the other end. Ben Jones over the last few games has worked really hard and probably his role as the target man is not his favoured position. He needs someone to work off. Hopefully we can get a target man so that he can start scoring goals for us again on a regular basis like he did towards the end of last season. The defence I thought yesterday especially in the second half did really well. Steve Ball and Dave Henry made a difference when they came on at the start of the second half and Craig Smith (once fit) will be a great asset down the centre of the park. The team is finally coming together and with one or two tweaks here and there then we should start seeing the right results coming in.