SALFORD CITY 1 HARROGATE RAILWAY 1

TEAM NEWS: Phil made three changes to the side that was victorious against Lancaster City last weekend. In came Phil Mitchell, Aaron Hollingdrake and new signing Steve Palfrey from Whitkirk Wanderers replacing the injured pair of James Nettleton and Andy Jackson and the departing Ben Hardy. With Liam Gray and Kevin Ryan still not quite ready for a return Rail could ill afford to pick up anymore injuries with only 3 replacements on the bench.

The first real chance went to Salford City within five minutes from the start of the game. A long diagonal ball found a free man at the back post. He headed the ball back into the area but his partner upfront ballooned the ball over the top. Rail then started to take control of the game with Paul Stansfield and Ben Jones causing problems with their direct running. Salford looked a bit jittery at the back with Will Mellor who was making an appearance from Salford’s academy side looking a bit vulnerable. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it Rail capitalised on Will’s error. His poor header back to the keeper was woefully short and in nipped Steve Palfrey who was making his debut to open his account with a neatly taken shot past the stranded keeper.

SALFORD CITY 0 HARROGATE RAILWAY 1 (14mins)

Rail didn’t really capitalise on the early breakthrough as Salford struggled to make any inroads into our defence. Slowly Salford came back into the game with some dangerous crosses from deep. Rail just about dealt with them but this encouraged Salford to come forward more and they took control of the game as the half wore on. Steve Paltrey marked his debut with a yellow card as he slid into block an Alex Mortimer pass. Despite the histrionics from Alex as he rolled around as though he had been shot he was able to continue after a couple of minute’s treatment. Rail seemed to be slipping deeper and deeper into their own half and it was to no surprise that Salford were gifted an equaliser. There seemed little danger as Salford were awarded a free-kick on the half way line but the ball into the area caused problems as Manny called to collect the ball. Unfortunately Manny misjudged it and in nipped Rhodri Giggs to head the ball into an empty net.

SALFORD CITY 1 HARROGATE RAILWAY 1 (36mins)

Salford were now finishing the half the strongest but some of their passing was a bit pedestrian which allowed Rail to hold on till half-time.

HALF-TIME: SALFORD CITY 1 HARROGATE RAILWAY 1

Salford came out the strongest in the second half and Rail seemed to be struggling to raise any sort of threat. On the odd occasion that we did manage to get out of our half it looked as though we could regain the lead but with the ball virtually coming straight back at us Rail were finding it difficult to maintain any sort of continued pressure. The midfield seem to disappear completely and in doing this let Salford control the game. Despite numerous corners and dangerous free-kicks our defence held out thanks mostly to our central pairing of Chris Jenkinson and Dan Verity and also the generous Salford attackers who seemed to threaten but only to deceive. In the end Salford on a better day would have ended up with 3 points but Rail had to grind this game out and got an invaluable point.

FULL-TIME: SALFORD CITY 1 HARROGATE RAILWAY 1

BOOKINGS: 1 – Steve Palfrey (Rail)

ATTENDANCE: 98

RAIL MEN OF THE MATCH: DAN VERITY & CHRIS JENKINSON

PLAYERS MARK OUT OF 10:

James Mann – 6

Dan Thirkell – 7

Tom Jackson – 6

Nicky Darker – 6

Dan Verity – 7

Chris Jenkinson – 7

Ben Jones – 7

Paul Stansfield – 7

Aaron Hollingdrake – 7

Steve Palfrey – 7

Phil Mitchell – 6

SUB: Steve Ball – not on long enough