Garforth 0 Cleethorpes Town 1

As the headline would suggest, a disjointed showing overall from The Miners, but things could’ve gone much differently had Mark Simpson converted one of our best chances of the game with ten minutes gone. Making one of his blistering runs forward he tried to go round the outside of Cleethorpes keeper Damien Steer but fired at the side netting.

The visitors’ first attempt on goal came four minutes later when a move down the left ended in Matthew Kingston shooting tamely at Ben Hunter. On 19 mins Hunter made another save, this time from a Brody Robertson effort from the edge of the box.

A setback for Town came just before the half hour mark when defender Jack McCarthy injured himself in a challenge and had to come off. Another name on Town’s growing injury list, but credit must go to attacking midfielder Ashley Preece who was called in to replace him at the back and did so ably, earning himself man-of-the-match award. Garforth remained fairly solid in defence but just couldn’t get things going up front with attacks breaking down after losing possession or just lacking quality in front of goal.

A dangerous spell for the Owls came shortly after when Jack Debnam lashed wide from a corner and an acrobatic chip from the same man on 32 mins beat Hunter and looked to be heading in but Preece raced in to clear off the line. On 36 mins it was Andy Hawksworth’s turn to do the same, this time from a Jonathan Oglesby header which had evaded the onrushing Hunter. Three minutes later Hunter pulled off a super stop to deny a fierce Oglesby strike from 25 yards finding the top corner.

Oglesby continued to cause problems for the Miners five mins before the break after he made a run forward, beating two defenders before firing past the far post. Town had been lucky to still be level, although did show a little promise with a good passing move down the left on 43 mins ending in Luke Mangham breaking clear and rifling a low shot just wide.

Garforth came out for the second half with much more urgency and were playing the better football, however similar to the Tadcaster game in October only for our opponents to make the breakthrough. A counter attack down the right by Luke Mascal saw him pick out Oglesby on the left to find the net with a shot Hunter got a hand to but couldn’t keep out.

Hawksworth went close to a quick equalizer on 61 mins when played in by Spencer Lund but smashed over from a narrow angle.
Substitute Jack Richardson nearly made it 2-0 ten minutes later when heading wide Debnam’s cross and on 79 mins Brody Robertson should’ve done better when played in on the right by Kingston but could only blaze over with only Hunter to beat.

Luckily for us Cleethorpes didn’t have the ruthless streak they showed in the away fixture back in October, meaning Town were still in with a chance of getting something. Steer in the Cleethorpes goal hadn’t been seriously tested, but him and his team were given something to think about on 84 mins when Simpson broke clear and was pulled back by Liam Dickens when homing in on the target. As the last man, referee Peter Sporne had little option to give him a straight red. So a freekick in a good position 25 yards out, unsurprisingly it was Tim Robertson who stepped up and was unlucky to see a decent effort clip the outside of the post.

From then on it was end to end stuff; Oglesby and Debnam were linking up well for the Lincolnshire side again on 87 mins, the latter heading just over the bar from the former’s deep ball in. Tawanda Rupere came close moments later when beating his man on the left but firing over from close range. In the six mins of injury time Debnam was inches away from putting the game out of our reach but shot wide from close range. Down at the other end Lund almost grabbed his first Town goal when a long ball forward evaded an opposing player but blazed over. Sadly not Garforth's day as an attacking force and the Owls were able to see out the game and complete a deserved double.