Harrogate Railway Ladies played there first pre-season match today(14 August 2016) away to Brayton Belles.
Brayton have always proved to be a strong team for Railway to play and today the west riding premier team from Selby went out to make life as challenging as possible for the Railway Ladies.
The Railway ladies certainly looked like a team that hadn’t played for the last 9 weeks, struggling to get out of there half for the first 15 minutes.
After Brayton broke down the right side on the 19th minute and played a sweet pass into the central attacker she took a great shot on goal from 12yards out, Rails Keeper, Charllote (rocky) Donnelly, make a fantastic save diving to her right unfortunately though Brayton pounced on the loose ball to make it 1-0.
Railway started to get themselves together after this and soon got back into the game 4 minutes later when new girl Paige Swales (midfield) won a great tackle, passed out wide to Louise Donnelly who in turn found Emma Lansdall to strike home the equalizer.
Yet again Railway shut down slightly and allowed Brayton to come straight back. On the 34th minute a thundering shot from the right side had Rocky well and truly beaten. It was Railways player of the match Laura Savage who won the ball 3 minutes from the restart, did a great one two with April Kennedy down the left and drove a shot at goal. It was cleared but only to the boot of Jenny Hudleston and she let fly from 28 yards out with a rocket of a shot into the top right corner,2-2.
The second half didn’t turn out to be as interesting for the supporters as the first half. Both teams made numerous changes as both managers were looking at different players and new players in various positions ready for the new season.
It wasn’t until the 81st minute that railway scored the winning goal it was Paige Swales who took the corner kick and put a perfect curve on the ball and as the keeper stretched to save it the ball went nicely into the front top corner, if she keeps doing that all season things will be bright for the newcomer.
Over all it was a good challenging game for both with Railway blowing off some cobwebs and seeing what they need to work on ready for the new season. Railway have a bigger challenge this Wednesday night at station view with a match against Brighouse Ladies, a team that Railway have yet to get a result against in any meetings in the past.
If you interested in joining the team, please contact Simon on 07740591697
