Garforth battled their way to 3 well-earned
points, as they saw off mid table opponents
Frickley Athletic in one to remember at the
Bannister Prentice stadium.

A crowd of 385 observed a rollercoaster match
which saw six goals, a hattrick, a sending off and
end to end all action game.

Frickley’s goalkeeper Callum Bradbury was the
first to be tested on the afternoon, as Jordan
Emery drove into the opponent’s half early on and
fired off a clean strike from outside the area,
which needed pushing wide before it flew into the
top right corner.

In the 9 th minute Garforth took an early lead, as
Charlie Marshall was played in behind Frickley’s
backline where he forced a good stop from the
‘keeper, but the rebound fell nicely in the area to
Matt Antcliff who slotted home into the empty
net.

Garforth continued to threaten and again, Emery
was allowed to launch a troubling effort off from a
similar area outside the box, however this time his
shot was low but was tipped wide once more by
Bradbury.

The Miners started the first half strongly and were
repeatedly searching for a ball over the top to
play in one of their attacking threats on goal,
however Frickley should have found themselves
level were it not for a glaring miss by forward
Lloyd Smith.

The visitor’s captain Richard Collier forced a stop
out of Harry Flatters and the rebound dropped to
the feet of Smith in front of goal, but somehow,
he fired over from no more than 6 yards out.

Frickley did manage to get themselves back into
the game however, after a poor pass back to
Flatters was picked up on by Alhassane Keita, who
was composed in rounding the goalkeeper and
finding the bottom corner for the equaliser.

However, the mistake was soon forgotten as the
Miners hit back almost instantly, with a quick
move from the kick off resulting in Charlie
Marshall volleying the ball home after it was
delivered into the area.

Matt Antcliff forced a handful of good saves out of
Bradbury as the half progressed, firstly turning a
low cross into the area goal bound which was
saved by the ‘keepers feet, and later almost
scrambling it home at the far post from a corner.

With 40 minutes played Frickley levelled the
scores again, as a shot from Collier inside the box
took a big deflection and unfortunately looped
over the head of Garforth’s goalkeeper into the
back of the net. This proved to be the last notable
action of the half and the teams headed in level at
the break.

HALF TIME: Garforth Town 2-2 Frickley Athletic

The second half begun and the frantic nature of
the tie didn’t seem to be letting up, as less than 5
minutes after the restart Garforth were back in
front. Marshall picked up the ball near the byline
following a misplaced cross and dribbled his way
into Frickley’s area, before curling a powerful shot
past the goalkeeper and into the side netting.

Soon after, the Miners were lucky to not find
themselves on the other end of a near enough
instant response, as Frickley’s ever threatening
Collier struck the post from the edge of the box
following a corner.

Garforth were digging deep for a fourth goal in
the second half having managed to get on top of
their opposition for a good period, creating some
great opportunities but failing to find the back of
the net.

The best of those chances fell to Marshall who
was threaded in on goal on a handful of occasions,

but when it came to the finish he failed to be
clinical, firing wide and over the bar.

After 70 minutes Frickley’s afternoon took a turn
for the worse as forward and goal scorer
Alhassane Keita was shown a straight red card
following an incident in which he kicked out at
Jordan Emery.

The home side mounted on the pressure to kill
the game off following this, with Antcliff and
Marshall again coming close and Jamie Barkway
seeing a header from a corner cleared off the line.

Finally, Garforth managed to seal the deal with 81
minutes gone. Marshall completed his hattrick
after Sam Barker was played into the box by Rino
Ejupi, where he squared the ball across the face of
goal to be tapped home at the far post.

And with that came to a close an action-packed
afternoon and a big 3 points for the Miners.

FULL TIME: Garforth Town 4-2 Frickley Athletic

At the end of an excellent game, which could have
easily been a landslide victory for Garforth on
another day, manager Paul Marshall will be
satisfied after his Son grabbed a hattrick and his
side overcame the 10 men of Frickley, despite
being pegged back twice in the first half.

Attention will now turn to an important fixture
next weekend against playoff hopefuls’ Thackley
at the Bannister Prentice stadium.