Development Team Result. Garforth 2 - 4 Curzon Ashton

Garforth Town Team:
1. Dan Booth
2. Tommy Reynolds
3. Josh Prince
4. Lee Coulthard - captain
5. Mat Robertshaw
6. Elliott Cuttle
7. Fabian Evans
8.Helmo Silva
9. Harold Monkam
10. Wesley Gibrill-Keating
11. Raul Fletcher
12. Aiden Croft
14. Harry Pickup
15. Andrew Dickinson
Garforth Town Man of Match: Fabian Evans (shown pictured)
Garforth Town Goalscorers: Harold Monkam and Wesley Gibrill-Keating.
Another good performance by the Garforth Town Development Team in which they came close to beating Conference North outfit Curzon Ashton's reserve team! A big effort considering that Curzon Ashton operate 3 divisions higher than Garforth Town in the football pyramid
and that 5 of the Town's starting 11 were schoolboys! Garforth raced into the lead after a minute when a good 45 yard ball from Garforth keeper Booth fell in front of the back pedalling Curzon centre half causing him to accidentally 'set' Garforth striker Gibrill- Keating. The latter drove forward to see his low shot saved by the keeper but the ball deflected back to Gibrill- Keating and he made no mistake with his second attempt. For the next 30 minutes Garforth seemed content to let Curzon dominate possession content in the knowledge that Curzon were not creating top scoring opportunities (just the one during this period). Then on 32 minutes another Raul Fletcher masterclass produced a 2nd goal for Garforth and thoughts of a giant killing act suddenly started to look plausible! The Curzon cdm 'dilly dallied' in his own half. Raul pressed him and forced him to play back to his centre half. The centre half 'dilly dallied' so Raul pressed him as well forcing him to play back to his keeper. The keeper also 'dilly dallied' so Raul pressed him as well before taking it off him and quickly squaring it to Harold Monkam who coolly placed it into the net from just inside the box. To their credit Curzon pulled one back within minutes when a cross from the left was beautifully dispatched with a first time half volley from 8 yards into the bottom corner of the Garforth net. Curzon scored a second within
minutes when a midriff height near post delivery was fumbled by the Garforth keeper Booth and the Curzon number 9 tapped it into the net. 2-2 at half time. Groundhog day made an appearance just 3 minutes into the second half when Curzon tried their luck again with another midriff height near post delivery. Again Garforth's 16 year old keeper Booth failed to collect it cleanly and the ball was worked back to the edge of the Garforth penalty area. Time seem to stand still as the Curzon right back struck the ball in exemplary fashion - head and knee over the ball - non striking foot alongside the ball - instep stroking through the middle of the ball - and we all watched in awe as the ball sailed, almost in slow motion, into the top corner of the Garforth net. What a finish! Beautiful. 3-2 to Curzon Ashton. The visitors rode their luck big style in my opinion on 60 minutes when their number 4, already on a yellow from the first half, flattened Monkam from behind with a late challenge only to receive a stern rebuke, and not a second yellow, from the referee. Lucky lad. The game continued to be tight with few goal scoring chances for either side and the visitors made the game safe with about 15 minutes to go when the Curzon number 7, who was their man of the match for my money, picked out his centre forward with a lovely pass and the latter finished with his second attempt after Garforth keeper Booth made a good save from his first attempt. Monkam almost scored a third goal for Garforth in the 89th minute when he volleyed Reynold's deep cross wide from 3 yards out. Another fascinating game - well done to both teams.