Garforth Town Team:
1. Josh Archer
2. Raul Fletcher
3. Elliott Cuttle
4. Joe Colley
5. Elias Larsen
6. Chris Manning
7. Gabriel Bradley
8. Joe Etherington
9. Ashley Wealthall
10. Lee Coulthard (captain)
11. Jahsiah Donaldson
12. Harry Croft
14. Sam Ola
15. Niall O'Regan
16. Tommy Reynolds
GT MoM: Elliott Cuttle (shown pictured)
GT Scorers: Ashley Wealthall, Harry Croft, Jahsiah Donaldson
The Garforth Town youngsters continued with their little 'in form run' with a thoroughly deserved victory against Conference North outfit Halifax Town. The boys have now won their last 3 games and produced 13 points from their last 7 games. This could well be viewed as a benchmark victory in many quarters for if my information is correct Garforth, with this victory, became the first team to beat one of the 'big hitting top 4 teams' in this division (that is Halifax Town, Guisely, Harrogate Town and Tadcaster Albion) in the last 2 seasons (apart from the' big 4' beating each other of course). The game ran to a pattern virtually from the outset. Garforth generally sat in their own 2/3rds out of possession whilst Halifax in possession switched across their back line and played with a deep lying midfielder who played in front of his own keeper. The Garforth boys were comfortable for the whole match in the tactical corner of the game. High quality chances were few and far between for both sides and I only recall 5 clear cut chances in the whole game - 4 to Garforth and 1 to Halifax. Garforth man of the match, left back Eliott Cuttle, produced his own little rendition of the Garforth 'Dennis the Menace' show terrorizing the Halifax players down their right on several occasions. Garforth opened the scoring on 31 minutes when a low Bradley cross arrived at the feet of the talented Ashley Wealthall who beat his man and sent the ball low into the corner of the goal from the edge of the box - a super finish. Goal number 2 arrived on 58 minutes with yet another assist from Raul Fletcher. Raul played a throw-in into the box to Garforth captain Lee Coulthard, who once again produced another super 'unsung hero performance', followed the throw and was rewarded when Lee played a lovely 'around the corner flick' into Raul's feet. Raul drove to the bye line and cut the ball back across the box. An under pressure Halifax defender played his clearance straight to Garforth player Harry Croft who produced a lovely first time finish from some 10 yards into the bottom corner of the net. Goal number 3 came on 68 minutes when a naive Halifax Town back pass was pounced upon by Jahsiah Donaldson - a dangerous thing to do in my opinion considering Jahsiah has spent a large part of his young career at Leeds United! The Halifax Town consolation goal came right at the death - a free kick from out wide was well dispatched into the Garforth penalty area and the Halifax scorer stooped to produce a looping header into the far corner of the net - a wonderful finish!
So it was a case of eat your heart out Mystic Meg - the Garforth coaching team had predicted earlier in the season a scalp from the Conference or Conference North. If you can keep a secret...then read on....they are also suggesting that the WRCFA U21 Floodlit League Premier League Cup later in the season could well be 'interesting' from the Garforth Town perspective - we await with bated breath.