Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
Penistone Church 1-4 Garforth Town
Promotion-chasing Garforth Town ran riot at Penistone Church to extend their unbeaten league run to ten games.
Joe Colley’s double and goals from James Burgess and Hass Gorji secured the win but in truth it should have been heavier against a Penistone side that was starting to show some form under new manager Steve Lenthall.
The win reinforces surprise package Garforth’s promotion credentials.
Aside from their best run in years, Paul Marshall has assembled Garforth’s best team since the glory-laden Simon Clifford era and this season represents the club’s best chance to return to the Northern Premier League since relegation in 2013.
The serial promotion-winner has achieved this on a low budget and with a side containing a lot of previously unknown players.
Yet here they are battling it out with the top two of Grimsby Borough and Eccleshill United and putting a side like Penistone to the sword in brutal fashion.
Garforth could have been out of sight in the first half.
Gorji forced an excellent save from Church goalkeeper Snaith minutes before Burgess barged his way into the penalty area and hammered a low effort into the net to break the deadlock.
The goal came just after Penistone had lost key skipper Danny Howes who walked in as Jack Grealish and left as Terry Butcher due to a bad head injury.
Tom Charlesworth wasted Penistone’s best first half opportunity as he blazed the ball out of the ground after the right channel opened up for him.
The Miners ended the half very strongly but on another day the chances might have come back to haunt.
An unmarked Colley headed wide from close range while an onside Gorji went one-on-one with Snaith and blasted the ball straight at him.
Fortunately for Garforth, the second goal arrived straight after the break.
An under pressure Snaith couldn’t collect a cross from the left and the ball ricocheted in the air in the six-yard-box and Colley headed home from two yards out.
Further chances followed.
Colley forced a save from Snaith.
Burgess went through and fired high and wide as he beared down on Snaith.
The third goal seemed to be coming and it came as Garforth turned the screw in the final 15 minutes.
Snaith was unable to hold onto Burgess’ long range missile and Colley prodded it away from him as the ball dropped to the ground – gifting him a simple tap-in.
Colley turned provider for the fourth as he laid off Gorji who sent a low finish past Snaith from the edge of the penalty area.
The gloss was slightly taken off the win as unmarked Lovell leapt like a salmon to send a bullet header past Toby Wells – continuing his hot-steak of three goals in three league games.
What They Said
Penistone Church manager Steve Lenthall
“It was very disappointing and Garforth fully deserved their win.
“They must be a bit mad we got one near the end.
“I know it was a great header from Brett but I don’t think we did enough in the 90 minutes at all to hurt them.
“I take my hat off to them.
“We didn’t get to grips with their game-plan and their eight (Dan Coupland) and seven (Jed Zanos).
“They were the ones who were hurting us and the ball players.
“Our players didn’t react and work hard enough with the ball and without the ball.
“We move on and we have to get a reaction out of the players.”
Garforth Town manager Paul Marshall
“It was a great performance.
“I never thought we’d win 4-1 but the game didn’t reflect the score-line, it was a comfortable win and if we had taken our chances it would have been eight.
“I was fuming with them at half-time for the amount of chances we missed and amount of passes we gave away.
“It is all about standards and we have set standards and they didn’t achieve them in the first half.
“I said it could come back to bite us in the back-side because Penistone would be better in the second half.
“As it happened, they rolled their sleeves up and they worked a lot harder than they did and we got the second goal and it was game over.”
The Teams
Penistone Church: Snaith, Charlesworth, Johnson, Ellis, Hughes, Lovell, Coduri, Howes (captain) (Firth 19), Kemp (Keightley 61), Ryan, Stewart (High 77). Subs unused: Brennan, Young.
Garforth Town: Wells, Leach, McGahan, Fitzgerald, Denton (Ragan 85), Terhaerdt, Zanos, Coupland (captain), Burgess, Gorji (Zachariou 80)), Colley (Silva 80). Sub unused: Pilkington.
Who Was In Charge
Graham Hoggarth (10/10)
How Many Were There
401
Man of the Match
Jed Zanos (Garforth Town)
