Harrogate Town football club kept their play-off hopes alive with a hard fought win over a battling Corby Town.
Steel Park survived a mid morning downpour,thanks to sterling work by the Corby groundstaff and an excellent drainage system.
Both sides struggled to master the sticky pitch and swirling breeze, in a first half that saw a lot of endeavour, but few clear cut chances.
Harrogate almost took an early lead when Corby skipper,Jason Crowe,miscued a Colin Larkin cross, and keeper Paul Walker, flung himself on the ball at the foot of the post.
Corby hit back with Josh Moreland shooting at Craig MacGillivray and Carl Piergianni heading Ryan Semple’s centre past the post.
The two Adams, Bolder and Nowakowski combined to release Dwayne Samuels and his low cross was only just scrambled away by the home defence.
Nat Wedderburn’s foul on Tom Platt,saw Dom Knowles hit the resulting free kick narrowly over, while Shane Killock’s, shot on the turn flashed past the far post.
In the shadow of half time, a blistering 25 yard free kick by Semple missed the Town upright by the proverbial coat of paint.
At last,on 51 minutes, Harrogate broke the stalemate.
The ever dangerous, Larkin reached the by- line and his low cross was turned in by Knowles from close range.
Another Semple free kick forced MacGillivray into a full length save which conceded a corner,as Corby hit back.
However, with slightly over 20 minutes left,the visitors struck again.
The home defence couldn’t deal with Knowles’s teasing cross which dropped just under the crossbar,and Adam Bolder was on hand to head in from close range.
Corby brought on all three subs in a determined effort to salvage something from the game.
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Joe N’Guessan headed wide and Shane Killock made a vital block to deny Wedderburn.
Harrogate held out through a torrid three minutes of stoppage time, to once again win the battle of the “Towns”, and come away with all three points.
Town
1 MacGillivray,2 Samuels, 3 Merris, 4 Bolder, 5 White, 6 Killock, 7 Platt, 8 Nowakowski, 9 Knowles, 10 Bolland (c), 11 Larkin.
Subs (none used) 12 Chilaka, 14 Woods, 15 Forrest, 16 Bloomer, 17 Dean.
Scorers, Knowles 51, Bolder 69. Bookings nil.
Attendance 273
