http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php en mail4rail@ntlworld.com Copyright 2008 2008-09-05T20:52:01+00:00 http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/pitch_inspection_at_1030/ http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/pitch_inspection_at_1030/#When:20:52:01Z It don’t look good. Watch this space. Site News 2008-09-05T20:52:01+00:00 http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/the_fa_cup_trail_starts_here/ http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/the_fa_cup_trail_starts_here/#When:05:14:00Z Harrogate Railway are on our way to Dunston Federation FC, Saturday 30th August. Climb aboard The Morgie Express Departs Station View at 11:30 am. Places are limited and are priced only £5.00 come and support THE RAIL....... After last seasons great success in the FA Cup there is an air of excitement building at the club. We all know what a Cup run can do for a club our size and how enjoyable that experience can be. Railway step out on Saturday with nothing to lose. It’s a new Competition our League form is out of the window, it’s a fresh start, a clean sheet. This is the greatest cup competition in the world if we can’t enjoy this we shouldn’t be involved with football. COME ON RAILWAY........ Site News 2008-08-28T05:14:00+00:00 http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/management_views/ http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/management_views/#When:19:39:00Z After only four games of the new season and one point gained its time to roll up our sleeves and take a long hard look at ourselves and our personal performances on the pitch. After only four games of the new season and one point gained its time to roll up our sleeves and take a long hard look at ourselves and our personal performances on the pitch. We know we should have more points than what we have at the moment but sloppy mistakes are proving very costly for us, another goalkeeping error on bank holiday Monday giving a mediocre Mossley side all three points after leading 1-0 forces us to make changes for our cup tie away at Dunston on Saturday. Ex Huddersfield Town and Doncaster Rovers keeper Lee Williams will make his debut, Rilo I’m afraid will not be available after a horrible clash of heads that has left him with stitches above his eye, Dan Thirkhill another casualty after a bad tackle at Rossendale keeps him sidelined for at least a couple of weeks, two influential players that will be badly missed. Steve Ball ex Farsley, Guiseley and Frickley left sided player will bring quality and experience to the side may play a part on Saturday. Also Danny Forrest will be signing after he returns from his holiday next week. Damien Dunne a recent signing from Guiseley has been released as he struggled with the pace and fitness levels both Dave and I demand and I’m afraid we don’t have the luxury of waiting for players to get match fit at this early but crucial start to our season good luck and thanks Damo. So its up to the rest of the squad to dig in and show us that you really want to play for this club and you’re willing to sweat blood for the cause because some of us are not playing to our potential and I’m afraid Dave and myself certainly are not frightened of making the tough decisions as you’ve already seen, if your not willing to put those hard yards in every week both in games and training you will be looking for another club. We have played four ordinary sides and been beaten by the odd goal in three of those games all in the last minute we should be sitting above half way with seven points right now and not down at wrong end of the table. I’m sure we will turn it around in the coming weeks, we all need to stick together and stay positive and improve in both our attitude and our work ethic and we will get through this poor start to our season. Dave and Stuart . Site News 2008-08-26T19:39:00+00:00 http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/harrogate_railway_1_mossley_2/ http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/harrogate_railway_1_mossley_2/#When:09:57:01Z Rail loose points again to a last minute goal TEAM: SUTCLIFFE,HAIGH,MORGAN.M,VERITY,MORGAN.R,RILEY, WALTERS,DUNNE,JONES,DOWNING,LITTLEFAIR. SUBS:ETIENNE,RYAN.S,BOSHELL,CAROL,FLOWERS With one or two changes made from last Saturday Dave Morgan was hoping to pick up 3 points from a resurgent Mossley. In what I can only describe as a fiesty opening 10 minutes 3 players were booked (Dan Verity,Matt Morgan for Rail - Graham Kay for Mossley) Things eventually settled down and both teams started to play some football. Chances were very limited with Mossley probably playing the better football with Rail looking a bit hesitant at the back. Once we settled down we looked a lot better and our first real opening came just after 20 minutes when a ball was squared across from our left and was sweetly hit by Walters at the edge of the area but Higgingbotham in the Mossley goal was equal to it and he palmed the ball out for a corner. Mossley came back at Rail and if wasn’t for a fine save after 30 minutes by Sutcliffe Rail would have been one down. Most of the excitement came with 5 minutes to go before half time when we should have gone at least one nil up when Damien Dunne went through twice on goal - the first chance was probably the easier of the two but unfortunately tripped over the ball at the wrong time and the second he was only denied by a fine tackle by a Mossley defender. Seconds before half time a nasty clash of heads meant the end of the game for James Riley who after several minutes treatment was taken to hospital with a nasty cut above his eye that required 8 stiches. On in his place came Joel Etienne who moved into midfield with Dan Verity moving alongside Rob Morgan in central defence. After several minutes injury time the referee blew his whistle for half time. Rail 0 Mossley 0 There were no changes by either team at half time. It was Rail who came shoooting out of their blocks at the start of the second half and within seconds of the restart they took the lead. Both Joel and Rob Morgan beat the Mossley offside trap and Joels shot was well blocked by Higgingbotham but it fell kindly to Rob Morgan who cooly slotted the ball home from 2 yards. Rail 1 Mossley 0 This seemed to lift Rail for a while but then Mossley came back into the game just on the hour mark. A free kick on the right hand side of our area was hit in hard and low and was neatly flicked in to the back of the net by Danny Dignan. Rail 1 Mossley 1 On 70 minutes Rail were awarded a free kick just outside the area after a late challenge by Daryl Weston which earned him a yellow card. Matt Morgan took the resulting free kick but fired wide of the right hand post. Mossley made a double substitution with Ben Wharton and Rob Parsonage coming on for Michael Fish and Dave Prout. Rail made one further sub with the injured Walters being replaced by Flowers/or Carol. Rail had another free kick on the edge of the area shortly afterwards but a woeful attempt by Ben Jones went wide of the mark and didn’t trouble the wall or the keeper. At this time it looked as though Rail, who were pressurising the Mossley defence, would get the winner as Joel surged forward on the left and managed to get in a decent cross only for the Mossley defender putting it out for a corner. Yet another booking and this time it was Mossley’s no.3 - Leon Henry who got the yellow card for what I thought was for persistant fouling. With only 2 minutes injury time left it looked as though the game would end one-a-piece but Mossley had other ideas. A free kick was awarded 30 odd yards down our right hand side and as the ball was floated into the near post our keeper clearly called for it and unforunately never came and with all our defenders waiting for him to collect the ball Mossley’s ‘Super sub’ - Rob Parsonage nipped in and hit the winning goal. A minute later it was all over. Rail 1 Mossley 2 RAILS MOTM: ROB MORGAN MOSSLEYS MOTM: LIAM HIGGINGBOTHAM I think a draw would have been a fairer result but hopefully these last minute goals we are conceding will be cut out. It was end to end stuff in the second half and although we got beat I am sure that things will be put right and the right results will start coming. Site News 2008-08-26T09:57:01+00:00 http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/trafford_1_harrogate_railway_0/ http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/trafford_1_harrogate_railway_0/#When:11:06:01Z Rail remain winless after 3 games despite a good defensive display against newboys Trafford FC Team: Sutcliffe,Verity,Morgan.M,Etienne,Morgan.R,Riley, Haigh,Dunne,Jones.B,Walters,Ryan.S. Subs: Downing,Boshell,Carol,Flowers,Littlefair On arriving at Shawe View for the first time our players couldn’t help noticing what a great pitch it was. The surface was as good as a bowling green. If you couldn’t play football on that surface - you never will. Play was pretty even in the first ten minutes with chances at a minimum - the first arriving from Ben Jones when he burst through on the left and lobbed the keeper only to see the ball bounce over the bar. Trafford came forward and found our defence difficult to break down with Liam Sutcliffe in fine form. With no less than 3 excellent saves in the first half he seemed to be unbeatable and try as Trafford did they could not find a way past him. Rail were put under a lot of pressure with them finding it difficult to get out of their own half. On the times that they did we were only left with long range shots from Scotty Ryan which the keeper dealt with comfortably. Trafford had a chance to go ahead when their forward went through one on one with Sooty but flashed his shot wide of the mark. Just before HT Sooty produced probably his best save of the match to deny Trafford yet again. HT 0-0 Trafford came firing out of their blocks after half time and on 51 minutes Traffords ‘Man of the Match’ Scott Barlow ran at pace down the left hand side of our defence avoiding 2 tackles and blasting a shot into the back of the net to put Trafford one up. Shortly afterwards Rail advanced upfield and Ben Jones flashed a header just past the post. This seemed to pick the pace of the game up and it was end to end stuff with shots just going wide from both sides. The game had been played in a friendly spirit but on 60 mins Traffords no.6 went into a 50/50 tackle with his foot raised and the young referee thought it was dangerous and promptly booked him. On 70 mins Rail brought on fresh legs with Guiseppe Downing & Jamie Flowers coming on in replace of Ryan Haigh and Joel Etienne. Dean Walters dropped back into midfield and Guiseppe joined Ben Jones up front. Within a space of a couple of minutes Rail had 2 half penalty appeals turned down for handball with attempts from Guiseppe and Ben. Time was running out for Rail and were finding it difficult to break through so in an attempt to get back into the game Dave Morgan brought on Byron Littlefair for Scotty Ryan on 80 mins. Shortly afterwards an unsavoury mass brawl broke out on the half way line with James Riley incensed about something I didn’t see. From what other people were saying Traffords substitute (no.15)for no apparent reason spat at Matt Morgan. Matt reacted and then other players joined in. The referee obviously saw the incident and had no alternative but to send him off. Matt was shown a yellow card for his reaction (and who wouldnt?) The game continued but no further chances were created and the game ended: Trafford 1 Rail 0 Although we were beaten there were good performances and my Men of the Match were Dan Verity and Liam Sutcliffe. The players won’t have time to dwell on this game too much as we have a Bank Holiday Monday game down at Station View against Mossley. Site News 2008-08-24T11:06:01+00:00 http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/rossendale_utd_2_harrogate_railway_2/ http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/rossendale_utd_2_harrogate_railway_2/#When:12:47:00Z A goal deep into injury time costs Rail 2 points Team: Sutcliffe,Thirkell,Morgan.M,Verity,Morgan.R,Riley,Haigh,Dunne,Boshell,Walters,Ryan.S. Subs:Littlefair,Etienne,Carol,Downing,Flowers On a night where both teams were looking to bounce back from opening day defeats things were pretty even in the opening 15 minutes with Rossendale hitting the bar and Rail having one cleared off the line by a very brave defender who when clearing his lines collided heavily with the goalpost. After treatment he was ok to continue. It was shortly after that incident that Rail took the lead. After good work by Nick Boshell on the left he crossed the ball to the far post for Ryan Haigh to side foot the ball into the far corner of the net on 22 minutes. Shortly after that Dean Walters found space out on the left but his shot narrowly missed the right hand post. Rails lead only lasted for only 5 minutes as Eastwood found himself unmarked on the edge of the penalty area and converted easily to make the score 1-1. It didn’t take Rail long to regain the lead. On 35 minutes Dean Walters worked his way through the Rossendale defence and lifted the ball over the advancing keeper and into the back of the net for his first goal for the Red & Greens. There was just one scare for Rail towards the end of the first half when Liam Sutcliffe slightly fumbled a cross but regained the ball with no Rossendale player around. Rossendale 1 Rail 2 No substitutions were made by either side during the first half interval. Again play was pretty even and it wasn’t until the 55th minute any real action took place when a Rossendale player came forward and hit a swerving 25 shot that beat Liam all ends up but came crashing of the crossbar and out of play. That started to liven things up a little bit after that as Dean Walters came forward and was narrowly wide of the mark which had the keeper well beaten. Rail made 2 substitutions with Guiseppe Downing coming on for Nick Boshell and Joel Etienne coming on for Damian Dunne. Although it hadn’t been a physical game up until the substitutions the referee booked 2 Rossendale players in quick succession. The second booking however was a little clumsy and resulted in Danny Thirkell being carried off on a stretcher with a bad leg injury after a lengthy delay. Danny was replaced by Jamie Carol which resulted in Ryan Haigh dropping back to full-back and Jamie Carol playing on the right hand side of midfield. After the restart Rail had claims for a penalty when Joel Etienne was brought down but the referee decided that it was just outside the area.Rossendale pressed forward in search of an equaliser but just as Rail looked as though they had the 3 points they pushed forward once again late into injury time and with the Rail defence backing off a ball was played out to the left hand side of the area and Eastwood shot past Liam for his and Rossendales second goal. Seconds later the final whistle went. Final score: Rossendale 2 Rail 2 Disappointed to say the least. It was another game where we should have got more out of but we conceded (again) late into the game. I thought with time running down we should have retained possession better and got more men behind the ball. It was them chasing the game - not us. A better overall 90 minutes than last Saturday with good performances from most of the team. Just a shame about Danny Thirkell - heres hoping for a quick recovery Site News 2008-08-20T12:47:00+00:00 http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/harrogate_railway_res_v_stalybridge_celtic_res/ http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/harrogate_railway_res_v_stalybridge_celtic_res/#When:07:56:00Z Tonight sees the debut appearence of the newly formed Reserve side down at Harrogate Railway. They play hosts to Stalybridge Celtic and the k.o is 7.45. Please come along and give the lads some support. Entrance is £2.00 & £1.00 concessions. Site News 2008-08-20T07:56:00+00:00 http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/harrogate_railway_2_lancaster_city_3/ http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/harrogate_railway_2_lancaster_city_3/#When:16:47:01Z Opening day defeat for Rail Rail Team: Sutcliffe, Thirkell, Morgan.M, Etienne, Morgan.R, Riley, Haigh, Dunne, Boshell, Walters, Ryan.S. Subs: Verity,Littlefair,Carol,Flowers,Downing A first half performance that the Rail players would rather forget. In that time Lancaster were rewarded with 2 goals, the first from Marshall after 9 minutes and a terrible mix up between Sutcliffe and Rob Morgan gifted Foster a second on 25 minutes. The only chance that came our way in the first half was well blocked by Thornley 10 minutes before half-time. The second half was a different kettle of fish. Whatever was said by Dave and Stuart at half-time seemed to pick the players up. A looping header by Scott Ryan after 54 minutes reduced the deficit to one and it wasn’t long after that that Scott made the scores level with a sweetly struck shot from just outside the area. 2-2 The game was there for the taking as Rail went for the winner and things started to liven up when Dan Verity (on for Dunne) slid in strongly to win the ball but Heffernan re-acted with a swinging elbow and after some debate between the assistant referee and the referee he was shown a red card. This galvanised Lancaster and chances we’re limited to Rail but on 89 minutes a mistimed tackle by a Rail defender on the half-way line let in Price with a free run on goal and with no defenders in sight he cooly slotted the winner in past Sutcliffe. No chance for Rail to come back again and the score ended Rail 2 Lancaster 3 Rail MOM - Matt Morgan Lancaster MOM - Michael Stringfellow Unfortunately we lost this game in the 1st half and all 3 goals were down to poor defending. On the whole our 2nd half performance we deserved a point but we were hit by a sucker punch for the winner and that as they say ‘is football’ Site News 2008-08-17T16:47:01+00:00 http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/match_report_v_leeds/ http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/match_report_v_leeds/#When:11:55:00Z Although the scoreline did not flatter Leeds the night was a success for Harrogate Railway RAIL TEAM: SUTCLIFFE, THIRKELL, MORGAN.M,VERITY, RILEY,HAIGH,ETIENNE,DUNNE,RYAN.S,WALTERS,BOSHELL. Subs: FOX,DOWNING,FLOWERS,LITTLEFAIR,RYAN.L,MORGAN.R & CAROL Our last pre-season friendly at a wet (again) Station View ended in a resounding victory for our illustrious visitors - Leeds United. With 1st teamers Michalak,Telfer,Westlake starting and Carole on the bench we knew that we were in for a tough game and so it turned out.In the first 15 minutes ‘Sooty’ had to make 3 brilliant saves to keep the score at nil nil but eventually Hotchkiss opened the scoring with a free header dispite attempts by our defender to head it off the line. Leeds limited us to one attempt minutes before half-time when a short back pass was intercepted by Nick Boshell. After rounding the keeper he decided to cross the ball for Dean Walters instead of side footing it home but Deanos shot was blocked and cleared. 2 substitutions at half time brought on Rob Morgan for Dan Verity and Carl Fox on for Damian Dunne. Try as we did to get back into the game the experience and quickness from Leeds eventually took its toll on Rail. A rather fortuitous goal from either Tom Elliot/Aidan White (Leeds website) after Sooty had made another good save was then followed up by Hotchkiss following up from his own missed penalty (after yet another save from Sooty)Goal no.4 came from the experienced Paul Telfer with a sweetly struck shot from distance and their final goal and probably the goal of the match came from Leeds No.10 (Cartman on team sheet) with a brilliant half way run which left our defenders in his wake and he cooly slotted the ball home. There was time for a consolation goal from Rail which Guiseppe Downing finished well. Final score: Rail 1 Leeds Utd 5 Although it wasn’t the way we’d have wished to finish the pre-season it was nice to see Gary McAllister and Steve Staunton down at Station View. Lets hope the next time we see Leeds Utd down here we’ll be playing a Championship side. Good luck lads for the rest of the season and thanks for coming down. Site News 2008-08-14T11:55:00+00:00 http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/rail_put_up_valiant_fight/ http://www.harrogaterailway.com/index.php/site/rail_put_up_valiant_fight/#When:21:00:01Z The team did well to give the pros a run for their money (literally) at points but eventually lost 5-1. Site News 2008-08-13T21:00:01+00:00