Harrogate Town climbed to the top of Vanarama National North with a 2-1 win over a gritty Curzon Ashton.
Town were unchanged from Saturday and they had the better of the early exchanges at the superbly appointed, Thameside Stadium.
A superb ball inside full back,George Greyson, by Dom Knowles sent Joe Colbeck clear,but his shot skimmed across the Curzon goal and evaded the far post.
Danny Ellis had a shot charged down and Paul Thirlwell twice shot narrowly wide from the edge of the area as Town pressed forward.
Meanwhile,Curzon staged some dangerous raids of their own and Lewis Turner had to make an excellent covering tackle to deny Alex Brown, when he got between the Town central defenders.
Curzon’s, Gary Burnett tested Peter Crook with a low cross shot and Simon Lakeland fired over the bar from twentyfive yards.
However,Town’s persistence paid off on the half hour when Colbeck found Brendan Daniels,who in turn played in the overlapping,Andy McWilliams and Knowles finished the move with a shot into the roof of the net.
Town,unfortunately wasted their dominance,when nine minutes later they pressed the self destruct button.
A misplaced clearance by Crook, who had strayed well of his line, was returned into the Town defence and Cecil Nyoni lost possession for Curzon to force a corner.
Lakeland’s inswinging corner was ruled to have crossed the line before anyone else got a touch.
Town started the second half with a vengeance.
Firstly,Knowles could only guide an inch perfect McWilliams cross straight at Hakan Burton in the home goal.Next it was Colbeck’s turn as he finished a strong run through the middle by driving at Burton and Daniels flashed a shot wide of the far post after being set up by Knowles.
It was only a matter of time before the dam broke and on sixtyone minutes a bout of head tennis from a Daniels corner ended with Luke Shiels beating Burton with a looping header.
Jack Emmett replaced Colbeck and Town had no difficulty in playing out time,helped considerably by the dismissal of Curzon captain,Brown in the seventysecond minute for a second bookable offence.
Town
1 Crook, 2 Turner, 3 McWilliams, 4 Thirlwell (c), 5 Shiels, 6 Ellis, 7 Colbeck (Emmett 66),
8 Nyoni, 9 Clayton, 10 Knowles, 11 Daniels (Thewlis 89).
Unused subs, 14 Kerry,15 Bloomer, 16 Swain Bookings Thirlwell,Knowles. Att 289
Scorers, Knowles 30, Shiels 61
By John Harrison.
