'Brilliant' Knaresborough Town climb into play-off places following home win over Horbury Town

Having suffered a couple of defeats during the early weeks of the season, the men from Manse Lane have been in fine form of late and recorded a third consecutive league success at the weekend.

That victory was sufficient to lift them up to fifth place in the table and into a play-off spot, despite the fact that they have played fewer games than the majority of teams in and around them due to their FA Cup and FA Vase exploits.

Ben Gelder struck just after the quarter-of-an-hour mark to hand Boro the lead, with second-half strikes from Jack Degruchy and Alex Ingham then wrapping up all three points.

And assistant manager Colin Heath was impressed by what he witnessed during what he described as a “brilliant” performance.

“In the first half, we were against the wind, and it took us 15 minutes to adapt to that,” Heath said.

“After we got the goal, I thought that the lads were brilliant. They adapted to the conditions, did really well and finished the half strongly.

"We mentioned at half-time that we would have the advantage of the wind, and sometimes you can take your foot off the gas, but I thought the players did really well.

"We played some great football, scored a couple of good goals, and probably could have gone on and got a couple more.

"It was great to see three different goal-scorers. I thought that Jack took his goal really well and it was nice to see the two number nines get a goal. So, I am really pleased with the performance.”

Knaresborough broke the deadlock on 16 minutes when a stretching Gelder finished from close range after Harry Coates had nodded Degruchy’s right-wing free-kick back across goal.

Degruchy then turned goal-scorer early in the second period, taking a touch 20 yards out and firing a low shot across Horbury goalkeeper Paul Day and into the bottom corner.

Ingham then rounded off the scoring in the 77th minute when he forced the ball under Day at the back post having got on the end of Slater Barnes’ inviting low cross from the left-hand side of the penalty area.

Saturday’s league win against Horbury follows on from Boro’s 2-0 home victory over Penistone Church in the second round of the NCEL League Cup.

Both goals arrived during the opening half, with Coates setting the ball rolling on 18 minutes before Gelder made it two shortly before the interval.

This Friday evening, Knaresborough face a derby showdown with local rivals Tadcaster Albion. That game kicks-off at Ings Lane at 7.45pm.