Brad Walker scored a hat-trick for Knaresborough Town
Brad Walker made the effort worthwhile for Knaresborough Town’s hard-working volunteers by grabbing a hat-trick in the feisty 3-0 success over Teversal.
Walker rewarded them after a desperate attempt in the morning to get the pitch playable for the Toolstation NCEL Division One match.
The only black mark was Joel Freeston’s straight red card deep into second half injury-time.
The signs of a fifth win in six matches for Knaresborough were good from the outset – Ben Parkes racing through and forcing a last ditch save from Dale Sheppard gave the home supporters some positive encouragement.
The breakthrough soon followed. After a sloppy back-pass, striker Walker raced towards the penalty area and hooked the loose ball past the advancing Sheppard.
A stream of yellow cards frustrated the crowd as the first half wore-on and that was the main topic of debate at interval, but Walker ensured he was the talk of Manse Lane as the second half began.
Walker wins the race with Teversal goalkeeper Dale Sheppard to put his side in front. Picture: Craig Dinsdale
Seven yellow cards and one red card were shown
Knaresborough manager Paul Stansfield was frustrated by a number of decisions in the first half
Brad Walker celebrates his second goal with George Eustance and Gary Collier. Picture: Craig Dinsdale
Walker seals his hat-trick. Picture: Craig Dinsdale
Joel Freeston sees red for his challenge on Jason Dawson. Picture: Craig Dinsdale
The striker did have two of his colleagues to thank for doing all the legwork in the build-up in his treble-securing goals.
Substitute George Eustance supplied Walker’s second straight after the interval with a cross that goalkeeper Sheppard completely mis-judged. Sheppard was flapping as the ball hit the crossbar and dropped down for Walker to score.
Sheppard did go onto pull his team out of the fire by diving to the rescue to save Ben Clayton’s powerful drive.
Spurred on after a warning shot from Teversal, Knaresborough soon put the match beyond their visitors – with a little help from away full-back Kyle Hempshall. His awful back-pass was easily intercepted by Gary Collier. The angles opened up and the striker could have gone for goal himself. But, instead of being greedy, Collier looked up and carefully posted the ball across the six-yard to the waiting Walker, who guided the ball over-the-line with his chest and a bit of his knee.
It was a perfect performance from Knaresborough, who had plenty more excellent chances to increase their lead towards the end.
The dismissal of Freeston for a rash challenge on Jason Dawson was the only disappointment for Paul Stansfield’s in-form side.
Knaresborough Town manager Paul Stansfield: “We played really well.
“A lot of effort went into getting the game on from the committee and ground staff and we had to repay it and I thought we did.
“There was a lot of doubt over whether it would go ahead. At 10am it was on, but then it starting throwing it down and rained non-stop.
“It was looking doubtful and it could have been called off, but it went ahead and it was a vindicated decision from our point of view.
“I thought we were excellent. For the first 20 minutes we were super and then we kind of lost our way and they bullied us a little bit for the next 20 minutes.
“For the first 20 minutes of the second half we were exceptional though and we could have scored a couple more.”
Knaresborough Town: Rushworth, Lees, Rodgers, Lenehan (captain) (Morris 62), Maullin, Bradley, Parkes, Clayton, Walker (Freeston 75), Collier, Whitehead (Eustance 12). Sub unused: Hobson.
Teversal: Sheppard, Hempshall, Vincent (Tittley 53), Staniforth (Tighe 71), Fisher, Watson (Cockerill 61), Atkins, Sargent, Dickinson, Cox, Dawson. Subs unused: Turton, Barnce.
Referee: Daniel Bennett
Ref Rating: 7/10
Attendance: 130
Man of the match: Brad Walker (Knaresborough Town)
Good game to watch from a spectators point with both teams giving there all with bad underfoot conditions to contend with.
The only downside to the game, was the poor referee who was quick to dish out yellow cards when there was no need to do so for both teams.
Maybe the referee should have had a yellow himself for the way ran the game.
Give the players a chance