Rob Youhill questions Harrogate Railway's mindset following disappointing draw with Athersley Recreation FC

The Starbeck outfit's joint-boss was left extremely disappointed after his side required an 87th-minute equaliser to salvage a point at home to struggling Athersley Rec at the weekend.

The South Yorkshiremen headed to Station View having lost five on the spin and fresh off the back of a 7-0 defeat in their previous match.

But, Railway began sluggishly, and having fallen behind to Luca Cancello’s 82nd-minute goal, they needed a late header from Harry Lynn to prevent them from finishing up empty-handed.

Currently second in the NCEL Division One standings, Youhill’s troops have served up plenty of good football so far this term and have beaten the teams who occupy first, third and fifth place at the time of going to press.

And although he has been delighted to see his players raise their game for their most difficult tests, the Rail chief feels that they have a tendency to take their eye off the ball when it comes to opponents that should, on paper, present less of a challenge.

"We weren't at it at all on Saturday,” Youhill said. “There is loads for us to work on.

"Athersley had a real tough weekend last week, and have been out of form. So, with all due respect to them, they were there for the taking.

“But, I think there is a mentality shift when we play teams that aren’t firing on all cylinders. It was the same last season, but I thought that we’d got better at it.

"I don’t know what it is, but I’ve told the players to stop looking at the league table, to stop looking at fixtures and results.

"Collectively, we weren’t great. We weren’t on it. It was one of those days and we will learn from it, but we have eight games in October, so we need to learn pretty fast.”

There was plenty that left Youhill visibly annoyed at the final whistle, but he was particularly unhappy with the way Railway started Saturday’s game.

"I said after we lost to Doncaster [last month], that it is so hard to switch momentum,” he added.

“Athersley lost 7-0 last week. With respect, any team that loses 7-0, if you get an early goal against them, they are going to think ‘oh not this again’.

"I said ‘let’s just start well, even for the first 15 minutes’. Generally, if you work hard for the first 15 minutes, you can be 1-0 up.

"But when you don’t start well, and we didn’t start particularly well, you struggle to get momentum in the game.

“I just think that everyone needs to be better.”

Saturday’s result leaves Railway four points behind top-of-the-table Dearne & District, but they still hold two games in hand.

The men from Station View return to league action this Saturday when they visit Armthorpe Welfare (3pm).