Harrogate Railway boss Fraser Lancaster 'very frustrated' by 'ridiculous decisions' during Horbury Town loss

The Starbeck outfit produced a better performance against their title-chasing hosts than the score-line would suggest, but were rather hard done by when it came to the biggest decisions that the referee had to make.

Railway conceded twice in the first half, following the award of a penalty and a free-kick, decisions which Lancaster felt were incorrectly given to top-of-the-table Horbury.

Centre-half Josh Lockwood was then sent off late in the game for a pair of bookable offences, though the match was already over as a contest by that point.

"I said to the lads in the changing room that I am actually happy with our performance," Lancaster said.

"I know that sounds ridiculous considering we lost 4-0, but we were playing against a very good team and we knew that we were going to be up against it.

"Unfortunately, other factors have had a big hand in some of the goals, and you can't plan for that. I don't like having excuses, but there were some ridiculous decisions made that cost us.

"There is the decision for the penalty and a free-kick that should never have been - and just missing things. You ask for consistency. We ask our players to play well consistently and you expect that from the officials.

"Yes, it sounds a bit like sour grapes, but I am just flabbergasted, to be quite honest. Fair play to Horbury, I hope that they do well for the rest of the season, but I am very, very frustrated.”

Horbury striker Gibril Bojang opened the scoring from that controversial 29th-minute spot-kick, then got on the end of the free-kick that Lancaster felt never should have been to make it 2-0 shortly before half-time.

Bojang completed his hat-trick just after the hour-mark, with James Cusworth rounding off the scoring on 77 minutes before Lockwood was dismissed late on.

And, although annoyed by the performance of the match officials, Lancaster was quick to praise the lethal Bojang after the final whistle, and also acknowledged that his own side came up short.

"We didn't do enough," he admitted.

"But, as I say, I'm pleased with our application. I think that we worked hard, we tried to create. We hit the post in the first half and created a couple of things.

“And Bojang is a very good player. He's got a hat-trick on Saturday and fair play to him. He was probably the best player on the pitch.”

Saturday’s defeat comes after the Rail beat Worsbrough Bridge Athletic 1-0 away from home in midweek, Lucas Robinson scoring the only goal on 23 minutes. That victory was their fourth in a row in NCEL Division One.

This Friday, 11th-placed Railway entertain promotion-chasing Ilkley Town at Station View, 7.45pm kick-off.