Hall Road Rangers 0-2 Armthorpe

Hall Road Rangers were left to rue missed chances as they lost 0-2 against Armthorpe Welfare at Haworth Park on Saturday. The visitors started the better of the two sides and provided the early threat in front of goal. Armthorpe had an effort inside the 1st minute as Steve Garner put a header over the bar. Another opportunity for the visitors came in the 14th minute when Jody Barford made a good save to prevent Josh Bucknall’s effort from finding the back of the net.

After this, Rangers began to work their way into the game and created a number of opportunities. One of these came in the 18th minute as Rich Medcalf saw his header go over the bar. Barford had to be on hand to produce another good save in the 22nd minute when Matty Hughes carved out a chance.

The remainder of the first half consisted of opportunities for Hall Road to go in front. They came close to doing so in the 26th minute through a James Piercy effort which went wide after he connected with a set-piece delivery from Chris Spinks into the Armthorpe box.

Spinks almost gave Rangers the lead in the 35th minute as he hit a shot which came back off the post and his rebounded effort was tipped over the bar by Armthorpe goalkeeper Callum Fielding.

The visitors took the lead in the 49th minute when Matty Hughes cut inside from the left and produced a strike which went through Jody Barford’s body and into the back of the net.

Hughes doubled Armthorpe’s lead in the 84th minute and it was a carbon copy of the first goal as he cut inside and slotted the ball home.

Hall Road boss Leon Sewell had a mixed reaction to his side’s overall performance.

“I thought we were spot on in the first half.

We didn’t take the chances that we had. I thought we dominated and got the ball into some good areas but we didn’t make it count.

We started alright in the second half. I thought we floated in and out of the game.

You’re always going to come under periods of pressure and we switched off with two lapses in concentration.

We were punished for it and it’s quite hard to accept given the hard work that was done in the first half” he said.

Report by: Oliver Harsley