Rail give 100% but are still overpowered by a dominant

FC Halifax Town

FC HALIFAX TOWN 3 HARROGATE RAILWAY 0

TEAM NEWS: With the suspension of central defender Dan Verity in came Danny Thirkell at right back and James Nettleton joining Chris Jenkinson in the centre of the defence.

An unenviable task for the Mighty Rail as they aimed to become the first team to beat FC Halifax Town in the League on their own “pitch” Pitch unfortunately doesn’t really come into as it probably would have been better instead of the football players bringing their own boots as to bring a bucket and spade with them. As rugby is played on the pitch it is not really doing the pitch any good and with the snow and the rain we’ve had over the last couple of months decent football should have been at a premium but both sides set out in a determined fashion and produced a good first half for the large crowd that turned up. With 15 minutes gone there hadn’t been a shot in anger from either side as they came to terms with the difficult pitch. Things started to warm up in the middle of the park as Harry Winters was involved in an off the ball incident with Liam Gray. The referee waited to let things calm down and then produced a yellow card for the home player much to the dismay of their supporters. Our hosts then started to put some pressure on our back four with the ever dangerous James Dean coming close to opening the score but Manny did well to come out and block his shot. However it wasn’t long after that FC Halifax took the lead. Tom Jackson unfortunately didn’t close down the Halifax player wide on their right. This gave the player the chance to put in a dangerous cross which was met by the head of ex-Rail player Richard ‘Scooby’ Marshall and despite Manny’s best efforts he couldn’t keep the firm header out as it dropped into the back of the net.

FC HALIFAX TOWN 1 HARROGATE RAILWAY 0 (25mins)

A setback for Rail but within minutes they were straight back at the men in blue and white. A great run by Aaron Hollingdrake wide on our right was halted by his shirt being pulled by Captain Ryan Crossley. The referee had no hesitation in producing his second yellow card of the afternoon for the challenge.  As the half wore on Rail were getting to grips with the pitch and were beginning to make inroads into the Halifax area. A great run and cross by Kevin Ryan found Nicky Darker at the far side of the area but by the time he had controlled the ball his shot was closed down and blocked.  Within seconds of the referee blowing his whistle for half-time Rail were awarded a free kick down our left. The cross was a good one but the ball didn’t bounce in the six yard box and the chance was gone as one of the Halifax players hacked the ball to safety.

HALF-TIME: FC HALIFAX TOWN 1 HARROGATE RAILWAY 0

The second half basically belonged to FC Halifax with Rail failing to capitalise on their first half chances and were made to pay. Tom Baker was breaking up any attack Rail attempted and James Dean and Nick Gray were causing problems to our back four. Phil Sharpe then decided to make some changes with Danny Thirkell and Tom Jackson being replaced by Steve Ball and Nathan Cartman. I can understand Nathan coming on but I was a bit puzzled to see Tom Jackson coming off as he was having a decent game. Nicky Darker then dropped back to fill in Dan Thirkell’s position at full back. Unfortunately the moves were followed by a second goal. A long ball over the top off our defence down the left hand side evaded our offside trap and with players still appealing Nick Gray ran in on goal unchallenged and planted a high shot past Manny and into the back of the net.

FC HALIFAX TOWN 2 HARROGATE RAILWAY 0 (61mins)

If the task was difficult beforehand it was nigh on impossible now for Rail to get anything out of the game and if it wasn’t for the heroics of Steve Ball moments later Rail would have been three down as he headed off the line from a corner kick. Soon afterwards Halifax had the ball in the net once again but the lines person had raised his flag up for offside. Two more substitutions  one from each side happened with Mark Peers coming on for Harry Winters and Phil Mitchell replacing Ben Jones.  This seemed to give Rail more impetus and started to threaten the under worked Halifax defence. Rail looked as though they had claims for a penalty as a mix up at the back between Jonathan Hedge and Phil Mitchell resulted in Phil taking the ball off the keeper and Hedge bringing Phil down. Unfortunately the referee spared Hedge’s blushes and awarded the keeper a free-kick. Within moments of this incident FC Halifax went to the other end of the pitch and scored their third goal. There were question marks about this incident as well as it was the lines person who seemed to have awarded the goal. A hard shot across Manny from substitute Mark Peers was cleared off the line by Steve Ball. Although our view was obscured the lines person raised his flag as play carried on. The lines person was consulted by the referee and after a couple of moment’s hesitation the referee awarded the goal as he deemed that the ball had crossed the line. So instead of possibly being back in the game at two one we found ourselves three nil down.

FC HALIFAX TOWN 3 HARROGATE RAILWAY 0 (78mins)

FC Halifax in the remaining minutes had two goals disallowed for offside, James Dean had one shot blocked by Manny and one shot wide when it seemed easier to score whilst at the other end Rail had another half-hearted appeal turned down for a penalty, Nathan had a good shot blocked and Paul Stansfield had a free header which went wide. With only minutes left Steve Ball found himself in the book as he pulled back a Halifax attacker. With only 3 minutes of injury-time remaining the game was played out with no further incident.

FULL-TIME: FC HALIFAX TOWN 3 HARROGATE RAILWAY 0

BOOKINGS: 3 – Harry Winters & Ryan Crossley (Halifax) Steve Ball (Rail)

ATTENDANCE: 1271

RAIL PLAYERS OF THE MATCH: JAMES NETTLETON & CHRIS JENKINSON

PLAYERS MARKS OUT OF 10

James Mann – 7 Dan Thirkell – 7  Tom Jackson – 7

Liam Gray – 7    James Nettleton – 8    Chris Jenkinson – 8

Nicky Darker – 7        Paul Stansfield – 7      Kevin Ryan – 7

Aaron Hollingdrake – 8 Ben Jones – 7

SUBS: Steve Ball – 7, Nathan Cartman – 6, Phil Mitchell - 7