Harrogate Railway 3-1 Steeton
Captain marvel Dan McDaid returned from injury with a bang by scoring twice to lead Harrogate Railway to victory against Steeton in their final pre-season fixture.
All the match’s goals came in a rip-roaring opening 20 minutes at Station View.
Railway burst out of the blocks and had their supporters celebrating after just a minute. Mick O’Connell’s men made a break down the right and Joe Crosby sent a delicious cross into the box which man of the moment Kieran Greenway met with a equally delightful diving header.
Steeton responded quite quickly as Luke Baldwin’s long range effort was spilled into the left-hand bottom corner by home goalkeeper Joe Wilton.
Railway did not rest on their laurels as McDaid transformed himself into a goal machine and pounced twice in three minutes. Elliot Holmes’ sublime pass found McDaid on the right-side and the ex-Glasshoughton Welfare man showed great composure to draw the goalkeeper out and then bury the ball low and hard into the net using his left-foot.
Before Steeton could even get up from that punch, Greenway sent a perfectly-weighted free kick into the box for McDaid to head past goalkeeper Jordan Moorhouse.
Roy Mason’s Steeton twice hit the post in the first half so the visitors were unlucky to be two goals down.
Railway striker Chris Smith watched a rocket of a strike get tipped over the crossbar in the second half, but overall the game fizzled out.
The Teams
Harrogate Railway: Wilton, McDaid (captain), Seyfert, Brownlee, Holmes, Clarke, Prata, Newsome, Bromley, Greenway, Crosby. Subs: Smith, Wilson, Hardcastle, Shaw, Hassell.
Steeton: Moorhouse, Marsh, Madueke, Morgan (captain), Borek, Wolfenden, Subhani, Townsend, Kinteh, Wignall, Baldwin. Subs: Jeffrey, Maddocks, Darkins, Davis, Preston.
Who Was In Charge
Nigel Bannister (10/10)
Mr Bannister glided across the pitch like a young Howard Webb and controlled the game like a man destined for greater heights.
How Many Were There
Under 100
Man of the Match
Kieran Greenway (Harrogate Railway)
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams. As we slowly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.
Like most organisations, we have been affected financially by the Coronavirus and because of the cancelled Lucille Rollinson Memorial Tournament, we are down on projected income for the year and we have incurred losses in the last few months.
We have not been hit as badly as other organisations, but we do need raise £2000 to put us back at the level we were at in mid-March and enable us to make a difference once again to our players’ lives in the future, without having financial worries. Several of our players are suffering from effects of the lockdown and we are determined to be in the strongest position possible to provide services for them.
Any amount raised above £2000 will be put towards new projects (when the world returns to normal) designed to further benefit people with disabilities and learning difficulties. You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.