NCEL- Game 41
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08/04/25 - Harrogate Railway vs Wombwell Town
In a must win game to keep on the heals of Horbury Town, the Wellers went to Harrogate Railway with an impress record on the road. Their league campaign has seen the title chasers lose just once on the road, and it was their only defeat in the league in 2025. It came at Wakefield who were in the same situation against Maltby Main on Tuesday evening. It was Harrogate Railway who started brightly and looked to use their familiarity with a wicked slope to their advantage early on, but failed to really test Sebastian Malkowski. The pressure started to mount on Harrogate Railway's keeper, Nathan Drake, on a quarter of an hour as he made a double save to deny Cian Guest and with the efforts only half cleared was forced into uncharted territory to save a third effort in quick succession - this time from Jordan Kershaw. On 21 minutes the crowd became confused and left scratching their heads as a deep cross into the box by Josh Nodder then resulted in a straight red for the Wellers forward. A Harrogate player went down with just one person hearing an apparent elbow to his face. Off trudged Nodder with the Wellers down to ten yet again. But this is a team who will play with a man short and up their game. It took just four minutes for the visitors to break the deadlock as Jock Curran fired into the top corner from distance, giving Drake no chance. A second came on 37 minutes from a corner. Sam Finlaw's dead ball into the box was met by the head of Jack Dando and despite desperate claws on the line the assistant waved to indicate a goal as Curran made sure the ball hit the back of the net. The drama didn't end there with Harrogate Railway lucky not to go down to ten men themselves three minutes before the break. A ball into the box by Finlaw saw Desmond Okoro rise three feet above everyone else and slap the ball away with his hand as though he was playing basketball. Somehow the referee gave a free kick to the home side instead! Half Time: 0-2 Another call for handball in the area was waved away just four minutes into the second half as the defender redirected the ball away from the path of Kershaw who would have been free to go head-to-head with the keeper. A minute later the hosts thought they had pulled a goal back, but after putting the ball in the net the referee whistled to indicate a foul in the penalty area in favour of the Wellers. The game settled into a quieter rhythm for the majority of the following half hour, but with five minutes to go Malkowski was called into action once more and made an incredible stop to deny the striker - holding the ball to his check to deny a certain goal following a run through the heart of the defence. Elsewhere, Wakefield lost against Maltby Main and fall away from the title fight, hoping now for success in the play-offs. For the Wellers a win on Saturday is key, hoping that Horbury Town don't win against...Maltby Main. Harrogate Railway - 0 Wombwell Town - 2 Jock Curran 25 Jack Dando 37 Attendance: 118
Images from this season can be found on the Gallery page.
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