Harrogate Railway's creative players suffer an off day during narrow defeat to Brigg Town
Rob Youhill attributed Harrogate Railway’s 1-0 defeat at Brigg Town to his creative players having an off day.
The Starbeck outfit smashed 10 past Glasshoughton in midweek, but drew a blank on Saturday afternoon, losing ground in the NCEL Division One promotion race in the process.
Reece York scored the only goal of the game in the 77th after Railway had laboured in the final third, and they were unable to find a route back into the contest during the closing stages.
And Youhill said after the game that he didn’t feel his main attacking threats were quite at the races.
"It was a tight game, it was very cagey and there weren’t many big chances in either half,” the Rail boss reflected.
"I don’t think it is disrespectful to say that we have both piano players and piano carriers in our team. And, because our piano players weren’t quite on it on Saturday, we were then expecting our carriers to create something.
"I asked at half-time for that one little bit of magic. And, with all due respect, when you are expecting the piano carriers in the team to create that, you are going to struggle.
"You need that little bit of magic from your front players, and when you are relying on your carriers, that is a bit of a problem.
"Whether it is because they scored 10 in midweek, I don’t know. But I do have to say that Brigg defended really well.”
Saturday’s loss to the Zebras saw Railway drop one position to fourth in the table, and leaves them nine points behind second-placed AFC Wakefield, albeit having played two games less.
And their work in the final third at Brigg was in complete contrast to last Tuesday’s showing at home to basement boys Glasshougton Welfare.
Nathan Heaton broke the deadlock with just six minutes on the clock, with Joe Navier doubling the lead a quarter of an hour later.
Sam Clothier put the hosts in full control before the interval when he added number three, before they went on to run riot after the interval.
Elliot Holmes made it 4-0 shortly after the resumption, with Alex Ingham’s quick-fire brace taking the lead to six.
Harry Lynn was next to get in on the action, followed by Clothier adding his second of the evening.
Ingham then completed his hat-trick on 77 minutes, before Harry Lee rounded off the scoring just 60 seconds later.
Next up for the Rail is a crunch clash with fellow promotion-hopefuls Wakefield.
Tuesday’s encounter kicks-off at Station View at 7.45pm.