Garforth Town 1 - 2 Bradford Riasa

Garforth Town Team:
1. Dan Booth
2. Andrew Dickinson
3. Elliott Cuttle
4. Lee Coulthard (captain)
5. Mat Devlin
6.Fabian Evans
7. Callum Dean
8. Helmo Silva
9. Wesley Gibrill Keating
10. Tommy Reynolds
11. Josh Prince
12. Connor Atkinson
14. Declan Allchin
15. Raul Fletcher
Garforth Town Man of Match: Josh Prince
Garforth Town Goal Scorer: Tommy Reynolds (shown pictured)
Any neutrals watching this top of the table v bottom of the table clash would have been hard pressed to work out which team actually sat top for this was a very close contest indeed but for the fourth time in the last five matches the Garforth boys didn't get the point (s) their play deserved. On this occasion they deserved at least one point, if indeed not all three! Garforth played their normal pass and move attractive brand of football and took the lead on 20 minutes when young Tommy Reynolds pounced on a loose ball in the middle of the park and did very well to go early with his shot before the keeper had had chance to set himself. Young Wesley Gibrill Keating had a glorious chance to put Garforth 2- 0 to the good some 10 minutes later with a one on one on the keeper but his effort was well saved. Tommy Reynolds then put a 20 yard 'rasper' inches over the bar. Riasa had their only chance of the half on 32 minutes when Garforth keeper Dan Booth made a good save on his near post. The second half continued to be a tight affair
but Garforth wing back Andrew Dickinson was perhaps a little unlucky to have been adjudged to have given away a penalty when he went to ground on his opponent in the 55th minute. Riasa clinched the victory with a highly controversial goal when a long keeper kick was flicked on into the Garforth box. Garforth centre half
Mat Devln was shielding the ball whilst
keeper Dan Booth came to collect it when the Riasa forward pushed Devlin into Booth. The ball spilled loose and the Riasa player tapped it into the empty net. There was no video of this match so I asked the father of one of our players (who retired some 3 years ago from being a ref with the Football National Conference) after the match for his verdict on the 2 controversial Riasa goals . His verdict was as follows:
Goal number 1 - a penalty - just - but certainly not a 'stone waller'
Goal number 2 - a foul on Mat Devlin - no goal - free kick to Garforth
Well done to young Josh Prince - he was adjudged to be the Garforth Town Man of Match - an impressive effort from a young man who is not even 16 and 1/12th yet!
So all in all another good performance by this very young Garforth development team - well done to them.