Harrogate Railway substitutes spark late fightback at Dronfield Town to keep promotion push on track

Marcus Day celebrates after heading home Harrogate Railway's 84th-minute winner at Dronfield Town. Pictures: Craig Dinsdale

Having worked so hard in recent weeks to bridge an eight-point gap and leapfrog Brigg Town into third place in NCEL Division One, the Starbeck club looked set to drop back down to fourth with the final whistle fast approaching.

Trailing 1-0 to Mark Fereday’s 64th-minute penalty and with play-off rivals Brigg 4-3 up against Selby, Railway conjured up two dramatic late goals to turn the game on its head.

First, substitute Adam Shaw burst free down the right and delivered an inviting low cross to the near post for Joe Crosby to finish from close range and level matters in the 82nd minute.

Harrogate Railway triumphed 2-0 at play-off rivals Brigg Town on Saturday.

Then, just moments later, Rhys Davies - another player who came off the bench - hung up a right-wing centre for fellow substitute Marcus Day to loop a far-post header back across goal and into the corner of the Dronfield net.

“Tonight was important with a lot of big games, teams around us playing each other, it was important that we won and we did exactly that, we won the game,” assistant boss Walsh reflected.

“We probably didn’t deserve to win. Credit to Dronfield, they had a game-plan. They stuck to the game-plan for 90 minutes and we had two bits of quality from two substitutes.

“All of the substitutes who came on made a massive impact. Two bits of quality, two goals, and that’s won us the game which is the main thing.”

Promotion-chasing Railway had only edged ahead of Brigg in the league table on Saturday, courtesy of their impressive 2-0 triumph in the Zebras’ own back yard.

With a third-placed finish guaranteeing home advantage in the post-season play-offs, Walsh and boss Mick O’Connell have made finishing in that spot a priority.

Thus, having climbed above Brigg just three days earlier courtesy of first-half strikes from Crosby and Kieran Greenway, were desperate for their team not to slip up at the first hurdle.

“Finishing third is huge in terms of the play-offs because it gives you a home tie for your semi-final,” O’Connell insisted.

“For me, being at home would be almost the same as kicking-off the match 1-0 up.”

This Saturday, Railway are back home at Station View where they entertain 14th-placed Hall Road Rangers, 3pm kick-off.