Garforth Town manager Graham Nicholas was disappointed with his side’s second half performance in the 2-1 FA Cup Preliminary Round defeat to Harrogate Railway
His team may have pushed a Evo Stik Division One North side to the limit, but, Graham Nicholas believed his Garforth Town side should have won the FA Cup Preliminary Round encounter.
Garforth led over 70 minutes until Nathan Cartman equalised and then Adam Baker won the game for Harrogate Railway.
Nicholas said: “I’m really disappointed with our second half performance.
“We touched upon their main threat which was down the middle, but they didn’t really hurt us.
“We just took our foot off the mettle and allowed them to dictate the play and the tempo.
“We didn’t seem to get into the game (in the second half).
“There’s not really any positives I take from the game. If you look at their squad, I think we are more than a match for them.
“If we played them week in week out, we would more than easily be able to deal with them.”
Nicholas also reserved criticism for referee Mark Dywer and one of his assistants, Ricky Taylor.
Dywer brandished seven yellow cards – four to Garforth along with a red card to Tawanda Rupere – who was also sent off in the FA Cup last season.
Nicholas described them as “poor” and he said: “I’m very disappointed with the officials.
“I think the official near to us (Pete Walker) had a fantastic game.
“I know they are doing their job to the best of their abilities, but the referee was card happy and he was dishing out too early.
“The young linesman when we were 1-0 up, flagged Luke Mangham for offside and I would urge him to look at that again on the replay.
“Luke went through and scored and decisions change games.”