Harrogate Town 0 AFC Telford United 0 Att. 305
A fighting second half performance by ten man Harrogate saw them hang on for a point against league leaders Telford.
Harrogate started well and squandered two opportunities in the tenth minute to take the lead.
Firstly,Adam Nowakowski headed a Craig James cross at Ryan Young in the Bucks goal,then Graeme Armstrong failed to connect with a centre from Wayne Phillips with the goal at his mercy.The Bucks began to come more into the game and Town keeper Mark Cook had to be at his best to keep out Andy Brown’s header from a sweetly struck Gary Mills corner.
Town,with the mercurial Phillips prominent,began to pressure the visiting defence,with Nowakowski shooting over the bar and Phillips himself going close with a cross shot.
The Bucks almost took the lead shortly before the break when Alex Meecham pulled back a cross for Phil Trainer, who could only watch in dismay as his shot was excellently saved by Mark Cook.
Four minutes into the second half Town were reduced to ten men, when Gary King’s two footed tackle on Stuart Whitehead brought an instant red card from Referee Glen Hart.
Telford began to dominate,and their captain,the ex Town player Shane Killock, latched on to Cook’s punch out and shot just over the angle.
Town were now under almost constant pressure,but stout defending orchestrated by the superb skipper,Jake Picton, and woeful finishing by the league leaders kept the scoresheet blank.
The introduction of Ciaran Toner with quarter of an hour left gave Town a new lease of life,and a Richard Marshall low cross into the box caused a scramble in the Bucks goalmouth.
Armstrong’s header on eighty minutes sent Toner away and Young did well to keep out his low drive.
In the last minute Telford sub Courtney Pitt was brought down on the edge of Town’s area,but Sean Newton placed his free kick narrowly over the crossbar.
Town easily survived four minutes of added time to leave the field to the enthusiastic cheers of the home fans.
John Harrison,
Harrogate Town.
