Rob Youhill believes his Harrogate Railway side are starting to 'turn corner'

The Starbeck outfit drew first blood at Ilkley Town through new signing Alex Ingham's first goal for the club and remained in the ascendancy until the hour-mark.

And despite seeing his side concede three times during the last third of the contest and finish up empty-handed, Youhill insisted that he was encouraged by Railway's performance, and by the fact that his troops did exactly what they were asked to do during conversations that took place in the lead up to Friday's game.

"I feel quite positive even though we lost 3-1, which will probably seem quite strange to most people," the Rail boss said.

"I've been talking recently in interviews about 'turning a corner' and been really conscious about saying those exact words because I didn't want it to bite me on the backside, but it feels like we turned a corner on Friday night.

"We have had a lot of conversations in the week about how we are going to reorganise moving forward, and that [performance] was exactly what we expected based on those conversations.

"I was a little bit apprehensive before the game, wondering whether the time we have put in this week was going to be worth it, but it was definitely worth it.

"It was unbelievably positive. There was no man of the match because it would be unfair to pick one player because they were all so good. But, that is the standard that we have to be constantly expecting from now on."

Striker Ingham, who joined Railway from local rivals Knaresborough Town recently, opened the scoring on 19 minutes when he picked out the bottom corner of the Ilkley net from the edge of the box.

But, Joe Snowden equalised for the hosts in the 60th minute, with James Hudson and Alfie Dean striking late on to decide matters.

"I think that from a neutral's point of view, that was a great display from both teams, but I don't think that we got what we deserved from the game," Youhill added.

"I think that 3-1 is flattering. It was a game of fine margins. We hit the post before they score their second and if that goes in, we are winning the game.

"Then we are trying to get back into the game, a chance gets cleared and they go down the other end and score, so it is a game of margins."

Railway, who beat Yorkshire Amateur 1-0 away from home courtesy of Ezio de Santis' 76th-minute free-kick in their previous outing, find themselves 12th in the NCEL Division One standings following their defeat to Ilkley.

They return to action this Saturday when they entertain struggling Louth Town (3pm).