Toolstation NCEL Division One
Hall Road Rangers 4-3 Knaresborough Town
ah reminds me of Johnny Metgod @HRRFC 4 @KnaresboroughFC 2 @TheBootifulGame @NonLeagueNorth @NonLeagueNews @nonleagueoracle pic.twitter.com/o6V2Xhli8m
— Peter Fleming (@EastHullPete) December 3, 2016
A stunning free kick from Chris Spinks was the difference as Hall Road Rangers won their play-offs tussle with Knaresborough Town at Haworth Park.
Dave Ricardo’s side have now won six of their last seven league games and after going two down within eight minutes here, showed exactly the sorts of qualities you’d expect from a team that will be challenging at the top of the league at the end of the season.
After the Dronfield defeat, Town boss Paul Stansfield suggested that his players had slipped into complacency after an excellent few months; they could now do with regaining the winning habit after a difficult few weeks and a winless run of four.
This game was a terrific showcase of the league- despite an opening 20 minutes littered with errors, it settled down into a high tempo contest with a good spread of chances at both ends.
Outstanding individual performances came from Hall Road’s forward players Spinks and Danny Norton with Knaresborough’s skipper Will Lenehan and winger Brad Walker also impressing.
Visiting forward Colin Heath has clubs of the standing of Leeds United Manchester United on his resume for a reason and he had a brace within ten minutes.
His first was a sharp swivelled finish from Harry Brown’s ball and he doubled up by planting a left-footed shot into the bottom corner in the box, after an Adam Fairhurst cross took a wicked deflection to wrong-foot defender James Piercy.
Josh Batty made inroads down the left in the home side’s attempts to get back into the game and his cross fell to Louis Kirk, on debut, who shrugged off a challenge and fired home at the second attempt.
Goole AFC duo Kirk and Connor Harman, who both slotted into midfield for this game, signed on the day of the game and are Hull-based players that became available following Dave Anderson’s controversial dismissal.
It was 2-2 when Batty back-heeled Kirk into space and his neat left-wing cross found Norton, in space, to sweep home with his left foot.
If either Stansfield or Ricardo had a single strand of hair on their heads they would have torn it out after a spell in which all of their pre-match planning went out of the window.
The pair are fiery characters who both have their own strong sense of what is right and this came through in a game that had its fair share of needle, particularly in the second half.
On 32 minutes, Norton completed his brace with Knaresborough guilty of some poor marking from a corner.
Piercy got himself a mismatch with Jonty Maullin and sent a header across the face of goal from the near post corner, allowing Norton to waltz into ten yards of space and nod onto the bar and down- over the line- despite protests.
After half-time Knaresborough had the tough trade-off of when to chase the game and they had a goal chalked off from a free-kick.
They didn’t have long to consider this as Spinks speared in a free-kick of the highest quality, that looked hit from the moment it left the ground, from the best part of 30 yards out.
Even after they went 4-2 up, Hall Road created some excellent chances with Spinks denied when one-on-one and Kirk having a good close shot saved.
Town tried their best to get back into the game but couldn’t carve out opportunities at the same rate. Brad Walker had a couple of shots blocked while by far their best chance came when a late corner was hacked off the line, following Brown’s goal to make it 4-3.
Knaresborough were perhaps slightly unfortunate to come out on the losing side although did let their opponents in with defensive errors and while Hall Road were by no means faultless, the character they showed to get back into the game after the first eight minutes was exemplary.
The Teams
Hall Road Rangers: Dobson; Belcher, Piercy, Dexter, Whittingham; Ricketts, Harman, Kirk; Norton, Spinks, Batty. Subs: Allanson, Mortimer, Muirhead, Binns, Granger.
Knaresborough Town: Rushworth; Maullin, Donnelly, Lenehan, McDaid; Fairhurst, Wilson, Parkes, Walker; Brown; Heath. Subs: Atkinson, Rodgers, Pye.