Hall Road 0-2 Retford

Hall Road Rangers were left frustrated after a 0-2 defeat against Retford FC at Haworth Park on Saturday.

The opening few minutes of the game saw both sides have opportunities to take the lead. In the 6th minute, Retford blazed an effort over the bar. Two minutes later, some good attacking interplay from Rangers sent Joe McFadyen clean through and he subsequently put his shot over the bar.

Haydn Goddard put the Choughs in front in the 19th minute as his drilled shot found the back of the net. Hall Road almost got an equaliser in the 27th minute when Joe McFadyen’s effort was smothered by Retford keeper Jon Kennedy.

Retford nearly doubled their lead, nine minutes later, as they flashed a shot just wide of the Rangers goal. A few minutes before the break, Hall Road again came close to getting back on level terms as Danny Norton had his free kick saved by Jon Kennedy and then Jacob Galloway put the rebound wide.

An opportunity for Rangers came and went in the 61st minute. Chris Spinks stepped up to take a free-kick, straight after coming off the bench and saw it go wide.

The Choughs doubled their lead in the 68th minute thanks to an Alex Wonham strike. Ultimately, it wasn’t to be for Hall Road as they lost a 2nd successive league game. This leaves them sitting in 13th place in the NCEL Division One table.

Rangers joint boss Leon Sewell felt that the game lacked quality, but he gave credit to Retford for how they earned the three points.

“Obviously, it’s disappointing to get beat and even more so at home. It was a bit of a nothing game to be honest. It wasn’t a classic to be fair. If anyone recorded it, I don’t think I’d be rushing home to watch the highlights as such. Fair play to Chris and his Retford team. They’ve come and done a job on us.

Over the years, we’ve actually been their bogey side to an extent. The game lacked quality and what upsets me the most is I don’t think we exerted ourselves as good as what we know we’re capable of doing.

You can’t turn up one week and then not the next. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a learning curve midweek at Dronfield and then obviously we’ve played Retford at home today and they’ve taken their two chances really.

It’s fine margins again. We’ve had a mix of youth and experience. We’ve created opportunities and not taken them. That’s pretty much how it panned out for me. They attacked, we attacked and there wasn’t any real quality in the final third from both teams” Sewell said.

Oliver Harsley