Harrogate Town suffered their first reverse of the season with a one nil defeat at bogie club, Alfreton Town.
Simon Weaver made one change for Town, giving Chib Chilaka a start and Jack Emmett a place on the subs bench.
Tom Platt opened proceedings with a shot across Alfreton’s goal, but this was followed by a brace of free kicks from the Red’s, Ryan Wilson,which posed little threat to the visiting defence.
Indeed, it was Harrogate who almost opened the scoring when Jon Paul Pittman robbed Todd Jordan on the edge of the area,but his rising drive was inches over the top.
The only goal of the game arrived after thirtytwo minutes, when Jordan picked out Dan Bradley with a defence splitting sixty yard cross field pass and the prolific scorer chested the ball down and fired pass Peter Crook into the far corner.
A strong break down the middle by Simon Ainge ended with him finding Pittman, who flashed a shot across the home goal.
At half time, Jordan Robertson and Emmett replaced Andi Thanoj and Chilaka,but it was Red’s sub,Adam Priestley’s deflected lob that caused danger for Town.
Ainge was again in action when he met a Joe Leesley free kick but Red’s keeper, Jordan Spiess tipped, his header over the bar.
With a quarter of the match left, Pittman made way for Dom Knowles and within minutes he almost equalised for Harrogate.
Alfreton failed to cut out Lewis Turner’s long ball out of defence and Knowles lobbed Spiess who was caught in no man’s land, only to see the ball hit the post and rebound into the grateful arms of a very relieved keeper.
Both sides had late chances and it took a brilliant tackle from the industrious, Luke Shiels, to deny Priestley.
As the game entered added time, Town piled on the pressure in an attempt to preserve their unbeaten run.
Warren Burrell received the ball twenty yards out and capped a fine game with a tremendous shot, which unfortunately for Town came back off the Alfreton crossbar.
So it’s on to Stalybridge on Tuesday evening,when hopefully,Town can resume winning ways.
Town
1 Crook, 2 Colbeck, 3 Turner, 4 Thanoj (Robertson 45), 5 Ainge (c),6 Shiels, 7 Burrell, 8 Platt, 9 Pittman (Knowles 67), 10 Chilaka(Emmett 45), 11 Leesley.
Unused subs, 14 Ellis,17 Stewart. Bookings Shiels,Burrell Att.430
Report by John Harrison.
Photogrpahy by Craig Hurle
