Garforth Town 1-1 Armthorpe Welfare

After a brilliant County Cup semi-final win at Harrogate Town in midweek, Garforth were back to the nitty-gritty of the NCEL premier division.

Visitors, Armthorpe Welfare, arrived on the back of a result that would have shocked their most hardened supporters. After conceding nineteen goals in three games (albeit against Worksop and Cleethorpes (twice)), they bounced back spectacularly by hitting five at Retford.
Graham Nicholas will have known that his team would have to do much more than turn up and put on a show.

Nick Black made the starting line-up after his late subs appearance in mid-week. Spencer Lund was also back in the team. These were the only two changes from Tuesday. Jay Davis and C J Lyle were the absentees.

Scrappy opening exchanges set the tone for much of the first half, where Garforth edged it on chances, but couldn't break the deadlock.
Sinmi Oyebanji came close twice, the second he prodded agonisingly wide, but should have buried.
Nick Black and Mark Simpson also tested the reactions of goalkeeper William Biggs.
The highlights for Armthorpe was a thirty yard run by Jay Rollins straight through the heart of Towns' midfield. Unfortunately for Welfare, his shot flew disappointingly over.

Garforth upped their tempo after the break and were ahead on sixty one minutes. Blacks' bouncing shot could only be parried into the path of Simpson, who obligingly side-footed it home.

This sparked Garforths' biggest spell of dominance in the game and to Armthorpes' credit, they just managed to resist conceding again, otherwise the result could have become an early formality.
Ben Hunter, who'd had little to do so far, was then called upon to make two vital stops from Rollins and Joe Lumsden.

The equaliser came on eighty minutes. Reminiscent of the first goal, Hunter could only palm a close range free-kick into the path of the waiting Lumsden.
Simpson very nearly restored the lead when he latched onto a Sam Jones cross, but crashed his header against the crossbar.

As the game went into stoppage time, a share of the spoils looked to be on the cards, until with the last attack of the match, Simpson had a dramatic goal ruled out for offside.
In typical style, the nippy forward ghosted in to capitalise on a mix up between Michael Bunn and Biggs.
Simspon appeared to run in from a deeply onside position before slotting the ball away, but the assistant referee saw it differently.

A late winner would have been cruel to Armthorpe, who worked hard all game to make it difficult for the Miners. As for Garforth, they can take away the positive of a fourth game unbeaten.