Garforth Town 1, Hall Road Rangers 1

Saturday October 14

The Supply Chain Network Community Stadium

Toolstation NCEL Premier Division

Match report supplied by Lee Myers

Hall Road Rangers played out a thrilling and entertaining 1-1 draw away at Garforth Town on Saturday afternoon, in a game that had everything but a red card with Rangers dominating for large percentages of the game against a talented Garforth side.

The game started with a shot from Connor Harman that only just cruised over the bar and with Josh Batty testing the back four Rangers looked on top.

Nothing clear cut fell for Rangers in the first 45 minutes though, and with the first half petering out a tasty challenge just before the break on Fraser Hanson set the tone for the second period.

With Hanson being unable to continue after the interval Chris Spinks came on to replace him.

The second half contained all the action, as after Rangers keeper Janney was rounded in a one on one, only a last ditch off the line clearance from James Piercy kept Rangers level. On his debut keeper Steve Janney was unlucky to be helped off from the pitch after suffering a nasty ankle injury.

With no backup keeper on the bench, striker Josh Batty donned the keeper’s shirt for the second time in his career after a similar situation whilst with Winterton Rangers, and Janney was replaced by another debutant Sam O’Malley.
With the home fans in fine voice, it was the hosts who did eventually take the lead through Simpson in the 71 st minute.

Undeterred, and with the fighting spirit that saw them lift last season’s NCEL First Division title, Rangers didn’t give up though.

With chances for Spinks and Norton to level the score up it fell to Jake Vernon to grab the equaliser deep into injury time which sparked an Alan Shearer style goal celebration from the midfielder, his first since rejoining the club.
After the game Manager Bill Gill was just about satisfied with the result, but felt let down by other factors his team could not control, notably the challenge on Fraser Hanson and the injury to keeper Steve Janney:

“Today was a fine example of all planning and preparation going out the window.

Apart from some questionable officiating, they where many other things that come about that was not accounted for.

Our left sided player has had to come off at half time following a disgraceful tackle by their right back and our centre forward ended up in goal as our debutant keeper came off with an injury.
Apart from that we have dominated possession and come away with a point with many chances to win the game.

Overall though I am happy especially the way the lads kept going to pull one back and showed real team spirit and character throughout.

We also handed debuts to two new outfield players and had a 16 year old on the bench and a reserve team player.”