Pickering Town 1 Garforth Town 1

From the off both teams looked to get forward, although initially neither goalkeeper was seriously troubled. The first chance of the game fell to Pickering after a good move ended in Jamie Patterson shooting just over the bar. Town responded only a minute later when Nick Black (making his 40th appearance) received the ball from Danny Harris, cut inside to find an opening and shot narrowly wide.

On 12 mins Ben Hunter saved easily from Billy Logan and five mins later some good work by Tawanda Rupere ended in Luke Mangham shooting straight at Pikes' keeper Toby Wells.

A bandaged Niall Tilsley was almost embarrassed by Andy Hawksworth's free kick into the six yard box on 23 mins, his clearance narrowly wide of the post. In a decent spell for The Miners good work on the left from Black saw him put through Harris who could only shoot tamely at Wells from just inside the penalty box. In a fairly even first half though the hosts were still creating chances of their own, Lewis Taylor drove a free kick just over the crossbar on 30 mins and just before the break a dangerous ball in across the six yard box was put in by Frank Belt but with nobody in blue to turn it home. Sandwiched between these chances was one for Mangham on 43 mins when he made his way in from the left but was denied by Wells again.

Half time saw the rain "easing off" ( (c) K. Strangeway) and a beautiful rainbow grace Mill Lane - to use the cliche was there to be pot of gold at the end for either side?

Understandably having being out of the game for several weeks the returning C J Lyle wasn't quite at his best, although was involved enough to attract a few strong challenges from the Pikes' defenders. Some good link-up play between him and Black six mins into the half saw Black shoot low at Wells. After this point the visitors stepped up their efforts in finding an opener, with Hunter in the Town goal again proving his worth with a number of saves to keep us in the game.

On 54 mins a deflected Logan drive from outside the box was kept out by an outstretched arm. Three mins later Hunter pulled off a spectacular double save, pushing Ryan Cooper's effort onto the angle, the ball falling nicely for Joel Ramm about 3 yards out who would surely score but the Town stopper made himself big and turned his effort wide. In a 100mph spell of chances, sometime around this point Hunter also denied a Logan strike from the edge of the box, parrying to Cooper who headed wide.

On 59 mins however the North Yorkshire side made it all count after a free kick on the left, a loose ball from a clearance being volleyed into the net by Wayne Aziz.

Garforth weren't down for long though, a quick free-kick taken by Mangham only two mins later found Black wide of the six yard box who shook off Aziz to expertly fire home into the far corner.

An immediate response for the home side saw Joel Ramm smash against the post from close range after breaking clear on 65 mins. Six mins after that the away fans at the "Scoreboard" end almost witnessed another Hawksworth "worldie", driving just over from about 20 yards after a nice left-to-right passing move by Mangham and Rupere.

A few more chances came about for both sides but neither could find a winner. Wells denied sub Dominic Hackney on 86 mins after he tried to head home Mangham's free kick at his near post, and then down at the other end Hunter pulled off another top class save to deny a Lewis Taylor strike.

A result which was probably about fair with both teams creating good chances. The team is a little way off the highs of September but have at least steadied the ship defensively compared to last month and with a little more conviction up front (something of a magic word this season) should be able to climb back up into the top ten.