Harrogate Railway aiming to keep things tight again following County Cup upset

The Starbeck outfit’s four-match winning streak was ended by Rossington Main last Saturday as some “criminal” defending at set-pieces spoilt an otherwise decent performance against their fellow play-off hopefuls.

And Rail boss Mick O’Connell has warned that a repeat performance will ensure that his side end up empty-handed once again.

“The Brigg game will be a really tough test. They are a big, physical team with a lot of pace, who score plenty of goals,” he said.

“We know what we have to do. We need to defend properly and be good on the counter-attack. If we do both of those things then we have a chance of getting something.

“Our home form has been good because our pitch is nice and wide, which suits us, but it will also suit Brigg, who have loads of pace in wide areas. So, the big thing for us is making sure we are defensively sound.

“We certainly have to defend our box much better than we did at Rossington.”

O’Connell and his men will take plenty of encouragement from their performance against Pontefract Collieries in midweek, Dan Thirkell’s 38th-minute penalty securing a shock 1-0 West Riding County Cup win over opponents who play their football two divisions higher up the pyramid.

“We can’t be naive and open up and go toe-to-toe with a team who are two divisions above us, I think the lads carried out the game-plan to a tee,” the Rail boss added.

“I can’t remember a time when they properly broke us down. I think they had one shot on target in 94 minutes, so credit to the lads, they defended really well.

“Last Saturday was a blip and we need to take Tuesday’s performance into this Saturday and use it as a stepping stone.”

Goalkeeper Joe Wilton played a big part Railway keeping that clean-sheet against Pontefract and was singled out for praise by his manager post-match.

“Joe was absolutely brilliant,” O’Connell continued.

“When you’re playing like we were, you need a keeper who can command his box and take pressure off the back-four, and he did that.”

Saturday’s clash with Brigg kicks-off at Station View at 3pm.

“Rossington were the better team on the day, I can’t deny that. They took their chances, so fair play to them,” he reflected.

“They probably played with a bit more energy than we did, but the scoreline doesn’t really reflect how the game went.

“Are they a better side than us? I don’t really think there was a lot in it at all, just a couple of bits of absolutely criminal defending by us at set-pieces.

“Their manager said to me afterwards that we are the best team they’ve played all season. He said they knew they’d been in a game.

“So, although I am obviously disappointed by the result and the two poor goals we conceded, I can still take a lot of positives from Saturday because of the overall display.”