Hall Road Rangers earned three points and a clean sheet in a 1-0 victory against Hull United at Haworth Park on Saturday. It was a scrappy game as both sides struggled to adapt to the windy conditions.

In the sixth minute, Rangers carved out a half chance with an effort which was fired over the bar by Dave Harrison. Sam O’Malley put Rangers in front three minutes later with a headed effort after meeting a Chris Spinks corner.

For the remainder of the first half, Hull United created a number of half chances of their own. This included a long range effort which went harmlessly over the bar and a shot that was comfortably saved by Rangers keeper Haydn Withill. Before the break, the visitors put an effort over the bar.

In the 49th minute, a set piece from the Citizens resulted in a header which went over the bar. They then flashed an effort wide in the 69th minute.

Meanwhile, Rangers could have doubled their lead on a number of occasions. After coming off the bench, Sam Loughton almost produced an immediate impact when he hit a shot wide in the 73rd minute. Elsewhere, James Murray had a header hit the crossbar and then Paul Wray sent his header over the bar following two superb deliveries by Spinks.

Late on, Spinks saw a free kick drift just wide.

Hall Road Rangers: Withill, Waud, Pulford (Loughton 61’), Murray, Miller (Wray 61’), Andrew (C), Harrison, Bullement, Spinks, Salter, O’Malley (Oliver 81’).

Unused Subs: Iversen, Sallis.

Rangers boss Leon Sewell was pleased with the collective effort of his players:

“I thought we were good in the first half. In the second half, it was a bit similar to last week as we sat off again for some reason and invited a lot of pressure.

Fair play to the 11 lads. They’ve put a shift in and they’ve been really hard to break down.

Scrappy game. The wind really, really spoilt it which is a shame.

It’s three points and a good goal that we scored and it’s a clean sheet. There’s a bit of frustration because we want the players to pass the ball with more conviction and not to be easy to read. We kept doing the same thing time and time again.

It’s still early days and we’re still trying to come together. There were a couple of forced changes from last weekend’s victory. Nine out of the 11 from last week have kept hold of their shirts and fair play to them.

I think we’ve got to give a bit of credit to Hull United. They kept going and didn’t stop. They asked questions of us especially in the first half. I think they had about 10 corners. We defended solidly and that was really positive.

We’ve got into some good areas, but we’ve not had much composure on the ball in the final third. It’s taken a long time for us to get the ball up there and that pattern of play drops down.

There’s still things to work on. Very dogged effort today as we stuck together and ground it out.”