Aiden Savory was outstanding for Farsley AFC and scored twice in their 4-1 win over Ossett Albion
Farsley AFC turned the heat up on second-placed Warrington Town after beating rock-bottom Ossett Albion 4-1 at Throstle Nest on New Year’s Day, writes James Grayson (Twitter: @jamesAgrayson).
With Warrington’s home game with Northwich postponed due to the heavy rain, it allowed Farsley to close the gap to two points in the race for Evo Stik Division One North play-offs.
Farsley had a small fright as Tyrone Gay gave Ossett the lead early on, but Neil Parsley’s hit back through Matty James.
Aiden Savory scored twice either side of half-time to put Farsley in an unassailable position and club captain Robbie O’Brien completed the victory in the final few minutes.
Farsley boss Parsley admitted that he was delighted with the win and he said: “To come away from the two Christmas games with four points is a healthy return.
“We probably weren’t as solid today as we have been. Morgs made a great save at 2-1 when Caldon Henson went through. But it is a team effort and Morgs is there to make saves when called upon and that’s what happened today.
“(Talking about the second Farsley goal on the stroke of half-time) we were in the predicament last year when we were in games and got done on half-time, but we took advantage of Ossett losing the ball and we counter-attacked really well.
“When you have pace in the side that is what you can do to teams. We were dominant in the second half without being as fluent as we have been. People who have seen our home games will have seen us play fluently.
“We played some decent stuff, but not for sustained periods like we have done. Nonetheless, 4-1, we can give ourselves a pat on the back for that.”
The result leaves Ossett in a perilous position with just 18 games remaining. Having won just twice in the league this season, Albion are now ten points adrift of safety.
Ossett boss Richard Tracey was happy with the way his side opened the match, but said they got punished.
He said: “We started brightly, but they’re a good team and although we rode it out for a little bit when they started imposing themselves on the game, they scored through a mistake.
“It was a long kick forward and we didn’t deal with it which made it 1-1. Then we conceded two seconds before half-time. The third goal was a bad goal and by the fourth the game was gone by then.
“Luck isn’t going for us. We had an opportunity to equalise at 2-1 and two minutes later it was 3-1 and the game was over.
“It was always a tough ask coming here, it was the same with Curzon on Saturday but we should have beaten Curzon on Saturday.
“In our position we should expect to win every game so we can’t afford to write off a number of games because we’re playing teams at the top end.”
Tyrone Gay dives to the ground to celebrate opening the scoring for Ossett at Farsley
Parsley will have been disappointed with the manner of how Ossett’s goal was scored. Gay deserves credit for his confidence and initiative, but the Farsley defence were all at sea.
The centre-half moved forward at a slow speed from his own half with the ball and the Farsley defence parted like the Red Sea. Gay played a one-two with Dale Kelly before keeping his composure to slide the ball past Morgan from the edge of the penalty area.
Farsley responded fairly quickly. Savory’s through ball was not dealt with by Ossett’s veteran stand-in goalkeeper Ashley Connor and James nipped in to take the ball past him and place it in the net.
Albion then lost leading goalscorer Kelly to injury which left a hole in their attack. However, the scores looked set to remain level at half-time until the third minute of injury time.
Ossett lost the ball on the halfway line and Savory sent Adam Priestley away through on goal. Priestley ran at full speed and easily steamed ahead of defender Gay.
The Gibraltarian International placed the ball under Connor and was set to celebrate his tenth goal of the campaign until Savory stole his thunder and tapped the ball home close to the goal-line.
Adam Priestley supplied the assist for Aiden Savory’s first goal
Farsley had opportunities to score a third. Ryan Serrant almost scored a rare goal when he made a run into the Ossett penalty area. Priestley was also inches away with a powerful strike.
Albion didn’t throw in the towel and Henson will rue missing a glorious chance on 70 minutes. The lively striker beat the offside trap, but struck his shot straight at the advancing Morgan.
It was a key moment in the match and a missed chance that Albion paid the price for as within 60 seconds Farsley were celebrating the crucial third goal. A hopeful long ball was not dealt with by the Albion defence and Savory, who was outstanding, got there first.
The former Bradford (Park Avenue) striker ran forward and superbly finished with a low strike which sailed into the far bottom corner – his 14th goal of the campaign.
Skipper O’Brien had earlier gone close with two attempts and he got himself on the score-sheet with just a few minutes remaining on the clock. The midfielder exchanged a pass with substitute Lee Ellington on the edge of the box and then fired a shot low and hard past Connor to complete a deserved win and pile more misery on Ossett.
Farsley AFC: Morgan, Hardy, Serrant, Daly (Hull 75), Dempsey, Miller, O’Brien (captain), Young, Priestley (Ellington 73), Savory, James (Grant 82). Subs unused: Taylor, Jackson.
Ossett Albion: Connor, O’Neill, Nicholson (Jones 87), Holt (captain), Gay, O’Brien, Henson, Walsh, Kelly (McGuire 25), Lucas (Gretch-Brooksbank 62)), Harrison. Sub unused: Milnes.
Referee: Mr Colin Whitaker (West Yorkshire)
Attendance: 185
Man of the match: Aiden Savory (Farsley AFC)
Match Photos are HERE