N C East Prem Div                               Sat 3 December 2005

HARROGATE RAILWAY ATHLETIC         8      GLASSHOUGHTON WELFARE                    1                                               

A CHANGE IN POSITIONAL PLACES PROVED THE DOWNFALL OF WELFARE IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS, GOING DOWN THEIR HEAVIEST DEFEAT IN MANY A YEAR.

Paul Mattison was moved in to midfield and although looking competent, and scoring the visitors only goal, before being moved back to the centre of defence, the rest of the defence was less than comfortable on a sticky surface against the fast raiding home men.

Although Welfare opened strongly with Mattison putting an half chance wide Rail began to dominate and after the first quarter breached the visitors defence with the simplest of goals, an innocuous header from Graham Marchant being allowed to squeeze home past two defenders and keeper Tom Morgan.  Before Welfare could re-group they found themselves further behind when Chris Haworth cut in to find Marchant who was left unmarked to score with a diving header.  A ray of hope was seen, perhaps the only one of the game for Welfare, when several minutes later Mattison got on to the end of a through ball to slot past the advancing keeper Lee Ashforth.  The joy was short lived however as the home advantage was quickly restored when play was allowed to go on from a clear offside, the ‘not interfering with play, clique being allowed by the match officials, and Marchant’s shot got a slight deflection, sufficient enough to wrong foot Morgan, and from then on Rail completely dominated proceedings for the rest of the first half, Liam Gray getting in on the act to net the home side’s fourth, and when Rail were awarded a more than dubious penalty, Marchant stepped up to convert for his own tally of four.  Before the break Rail’s Lee Ryan and Welfare’s Carl Fox were dismissed for handbags at four paces and Scott Ryan headed in Rail’s sixth to leave Welfare in complete disarray.

To their credit Welfare played better in the second period and but for some desperate defending by Rail when they twice cleared off the goal line from Julian Wilkes, the deficit could have been reduced, but the horror show continued as Morgan, feeling the effects of an earlier collision, was forced to retire and centre back Ashley Brewer was press ganged in to taking over the goal keeper shirt, going on to perform extremely well, but with the loss of Andy Seed for a double booking, was unable to prevent Marchant and former player Steve Ball adding to the home tally and complete an afternoon that Welfare will want to quickly forget.