Harrogate Railway Ladies were at home on Sunday 15 April 2012 against 3rd placed Brighouse.
This was a game where Railway could not afford to lose if they want to finish second in the league. Brighouse came out strong putting some good pressure on the rail defence in the first 5 minutes, Railway broke out down the left through Emma Lansdall (left back) out to Sandra Clark (left wing) who put a great cross in for forwards Hannah Campbell and Nicola Hadley, unfortunately neither could put it away.
On the 13th minute Brighouse put a over the top ball and their forward was the quickest and put the ball past Rails keeper 0-1. With a long way to go Railway got back to passing around using the full width of the pitch, eventually Martina Petrova (right wing) got her cross pin point for Dee Swales to latch onto and strike a great goal on the 20th minute, 1-1.
Railways tail was well up and it took only 3 more minutes for Sandra Clark to put Hannah through the middle and score to make it 2-1 to railway. Brighouse were always dangerous on the attack, again putting the ball over the top they manage to beat rails defence and make it 2-2 on 36 minutes.
As railway pressed creating good passing moves to the sides Brighouse had all but one player defending, eventually Issy Row got a shot in , it bounced off the post, found Martina whose shot came off the keeper and finally Sandra Clark got the ball over the line 3-2, half-time.
Railway should have put the game to bed in the second half as chance after chance went begging in front of the Brighouse goal, but to no avail. Railway could not find the same passing game as the first half, and also failed to use the width as before. Brighouse won a free kick 20yrds out for a hand ball, this was well taken and sailed into the far top corner,3-3.Railway tried hard to win the game but just could not find the killer touch and so came away with the draw.
Player of the match went to Martina Petrova and Ellie McCloud. Railway have one last league fixture in two weeks and the League cup final on May 7th.
