An early Liam Gray strike sees off Ossett Albion

HARROGATE RAILWAY 1 OSSETT ALBION 0

TEAM NEWS:  With Kevin Ryan still struggling with a leg injury Phil Sharpe had to make only one change from the side that drew with AFC Fylde the previous week with Steve Palfrey coming in to replace Kevin.

Our visitors who had previously picked up 4 vital points in their last two games didn’t start the game very well as Rail attacked from the off. Every time the ball went into the area the Ossett defence seemed to panic and after a few scares Rail managed to open the scoring early on in the game. A free kick was well blocked but the rebound was passed onto Liam Gray who found himself in lots of room on the left hand edge of the penalty area. He had time to take a touch and then blasted a low shot into the back of the net. Despite the appeals from the Ossett players for offside the goal stood.

HARROGATE RAILWAY 1 OSSETT ALBION 0 (8mins)

A great start by Rail but they didn’t really capitalise on Ossett’s jittery start. The crosses were causing all sorts of problems but no one could take the chances to finish Ossett off. Ossett only ventured out of their own half on a couple of occasions in the first half and it looked as though they had sneaked an equaliser. A dangerous cross came in from our right and it looked as though Shane Kelsey had glanced a header into the back of the net but the referee blew up for deliberate handball and showed Shane a yellow card. After a goalmouth scramble at the other end Steve Palfrey unfortunately had to go off injured and was replaced by Aaron Hollingdrake. The game then seemed to liven up towards the end of the half and Ossett came close once again with Manny having to be alert from a direct free-kick to palm the ball away for a corner. Rail then went to the other end and caused more problems to the defenders and most of all too poor old Ben Saynor in goal. Ossett seemed to have cleared the danger as the defender rolled the ball back to Ben for him to clear. Unfortunately Ben missed the ball completely and it looked as though the ball was going in but it came back off the post and Ben gratefully dropped onto the ball. The officials then awarded Rail an in-direct free-kick for a back pass which after a long delay was blasted into the defensive wall and cleared away.

HALF-TIME: HARROGATE RAILWAY 1 OSSETT ALBION 0

Rail again started the half really well but they couldn’t find a way through to kill the game off. Early chances weren’t taken as first Nicky Darker’s cross-cum shot narrowly went wide and Andy Jackson spectacular scissor-kick went just the wrong side of the post. Slowly Ossett started to get back into the game and Liam became the second player of the afternoon to see a yellow card as he made a late challenge on an Ossett midfielder. There was then a couple of changes for both teams as Mario Campagna replaced Lee Connor for Ossett and Dan Buttle came on for Liam. This seemed to have the desired effect for our visitors as within a space of a couple of minutes they had two chances that Manny managed to keep out with a little bit of good fortune as one of the shots came off the post and into his grateful hands. Ossett were getting a little frustrated and it wasn’t long after these chances that ex-Rail player Nathan James found himself in the referee’s notebook for a late challenge out on the touchline.