Harrogate Railway's win at Staveley Miners Welfare another step in the right direction

Skipper Dan McDaid scored the only goal of the game as Harrogate Railway edged out Staveley Miners Welfare. Picture: Craig Dinsdale

Saturday saw the Starbeck club grind out a 1-0 win on the road at Staveley Miners Welfare, their third consecutive success and a result which keeps them fourth in the NCEL Division One standings.

Indeed, the Rail began the season with three victories on the bounce but then went on to drop points in four of the five matches that followed, a sequence that saw them lose early ground at the top of the table.

But, with replicating last term’s top-five finish the target once again for the beaten 2021/22 play-off finalists, O’Connell is happy to see an overall improvement in terms of performances and results.

“Over the last two weeks we have started to look a bit more like our old selves,” the Irishman said.

"We’ve been creating more chances, we’ve been a lot more solid defensively and also grinding out results where necessary.

"There’s still a long way to go before we are hitting the levels I want to see consistently, but we are improving.

"On Saturday, I thought that we were very good value for the three points. I’ve watched the game back and I thought that we controlled the match both in and out of possession.”

Left-back Dan McDaid netted from close range in the 64th minute at Staveley to earn all three points for Railway, who entertain Selby Town this Saturday (3pm).

"Selby are a good team, but I think that if we perform somewhere near our best then we might have too much for them,” O’Connell added.