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17
Feb
Knaresborough Town steam past Harrogate Railway in County Cup
Knaresborough Town progressed to the next round of the County Cup after defeating Harrogate Railway 3-0 yesterday (February 16).
The team, which is in Division One of the West Riding County Women's Football League, triumphed against a strong Harrogate Railway team that currently competes in the Premier League, a division higher.
Town are currently second in Division One and are looking for their third successive promotion to reach the top division.
They will progress into the quarter-finals of the competition, where they will face Forge Way FC, another Premier League team.
The two teams battled in harsh conditions. Temperatures reached four degrees, and the pitch was extremely muddy due to drizzle the night before.
The ball was significantly slower in the mud, and players on both sides kept losing their footing.
Both teams started off well, with multiple shots being taken at either end in the first 20 minutes. Tackles were flying in, with both sides trying to get a foothold in an intense midfield battle.
About 25 minutes in, Knaresborough Town’s Cass Lane got in behind the Railway defence and chipped it over the keeper, but the goal was disallowed.
Cass Lane. Photo: Caughtlight Photography
After this, momentum shifted decisively Knaresborough’s way. Lane had a big part to play in this, constantly getting in behind the Railway defence and causing problems on the right-hand side.
The winger had a few golden opportunities to score, the best being a low driven shot across goal, from the edge of the box, sent just wide of the post.
Town’s Ellis Baxter also troubled the goalkeeper on numerous occasions before half-time. In a whirlwind couple of minutes, the 16-year-old forward forced three good saves from Harrogate’s goalkeeper, one of which seemed destined for the top right corner.
Railway dug in deep, though, and managed to reach the halfway point relatively unscathed.
Photo: Aibhlinn Doherty (aka Caughtlight TNG)
About a minute into the first half, Ellis Baxter was put through on goal again. Her calculated chip over the keeper was denied only by the woodwork.
Town kept pushing though, and a few minutes later they were ahead. A good ball through the Railway defence from Lorna Wilkinson was met with a sweet strike across goal from Lane, which the keeper could do nothing about.
Attack after attack came from Knaresborough, and Railway struggled to make it out of their own half.
Seventy minutes in, defender Bella Richardson played a fantastic ball through to Ellis Baxter on the left, who finally got her goal, cutting in and slotting it underneath the keeper into the near side of the net from close range.
Five minutes later, Baxter latched on to a spilled save from the Railway keeper, dribbling in the box and cutting the ball back for Bethany Padget to rifle in at the near post.
Railway had a few late surges into the opposition half, but stalwart defending from Knaresborough’s back four sealed a convincing win and clean sheet.
Ellis Baxter. Photo: Caughtlight Photography
‘We’re capable of competing.’
The Stray Ferret spoke to Knaresborough Town manager Michael Bligh after the game. He said:
It’s massive for the club. It shows that we’re competing against the teams in the higher division. It shows that the players that we’ve got at the club have got the right attitudes and technical ability to play in that division.
With us looking for promotion to that division it fills us with confidence that we don’t need to rewrite the book. We’ve got players capable of competing, so it’s just about building on what we’ve already got.
It’s brilliant to see them coming together and working so hard for each other.
Knaresborough Town's next cup opponents, Forge Way FC, sit in ninth place in the West Riding County Women’s Premier League. Harrogate Railway are in sixth place, so Knaresborough will be confident that they can book their ticket into the semi-finals.
If Town were to get to the final, it would be their first ever cup final.
Despite this, Bligh told us that they are not thinking about it, and that they just want to take their season one game at a time.
‘They fully deserved it on the day.’
The Stray Ferret also spoke with Rich Burns, first team manager of Harrogate Railway, who gave us his verdict:
It’s not the result we wanted. It came down to two things really: the conditions and the intensity.
The pitch was awful, and Knaresborough dealt with that much better than we did. They also gave an extra 10-15% more than we did.
We haven’t trained in 15 days and have a few players just back from injury. That said, the absolute last thing I want to come from this is for us to make excuses. Knaresborough definitely deserved it more than us and fully deserved it on the day.
With Railway out of all cup competitions, Burns said they now must focus on moving up the league.
Railway currently have three games in hand on the rest of the pack and could move up to third place if they win them all.
Harrogate Railway will travel to Farsley Celtic next on Sunday (February 23).
Knaresborough's quarter final against Forge Way FC will take place at Manse Lane on Sunday, March 16 at 2pm.
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