Harrogate Railway made too many 'individual mistakes' during loss to title rivals Dearne & District

The Starbeck outfit began extremely well and surged into a two-goal lead, but came unstuck after the break as their hosts demonstrated exactly why they are top of the NCEL Division One standings.

Railway’s manager did however feel that his players contributed to their own undoing, and was particularly disappointed by how they defended during the second 45.

“I thought that we were brilliant in the first half, but second half, we were not at it,” Youhill said.

"You win as a team, you lose as a team, but while individual moments of brilliance win you games, individual mistakes lose you games.

"There are moments where you need individuals to step up and do their jobs, and too many didn’t, to be honest.

“I thought that we were passive going forwards in the second half, and defensively we were all over the place in terms of marking men.

"So it was chalk and cheese, the first half to the second half. Dearne weren’t great in the first half when we were brilliant, but we weren’t great in the second half and they were better.”

Alex Ingham handed Railway an 11th-minute lead, and they doubled that advantage nine minutes later when Harris Eggleston struck.

Crucially, Justin Circuit was able to halve the deficit late in the first period, and two goals in the space of four minutes shortly after half-time from Adam Baskerville and Josh Dacre saw Dearne turn the game on its head.

Jamie Austin put the hosts 4-2 up in the 57th minute, and although Brad Walker pulled one back, Austin struck again late on to wrap things.

Saturday’s defeat was the Rail’s third on the spin in the league, with that run coming after they lost just one of their first 24 Division One fixtures.

And, it saw them drop to fourth place in the table, where they now sit 18 points behind Dearne, albeit with four games in hand.