Garforth glimpsed potential promotion rivals this cold Tuesday night, as Durham City produced a clinical display to counter the rough, ready and willing hosts. While a stoppage time goal gave the visitors an unfairly commanding scoreline, the ability of Durham is indisputable.
Town created some moderately good ‘striker’s’ chances from time to time, but were unable to apply the final golden touch. The incessant rain throughout the day made the grass wet and slippy, which was illustrated by the sliding two footed challenge made on Nathan Kamara’s shins after only six minutes, a move known in professional wrestling as ‘the baseball slide’. This would prove to be a feature, as many balls were slightly overhit only to skid out of play, and many overzealous, dangerous tackles committed.
The first incisive move came from Town; Greg Kelly turned sharply in his own half and released captain Renshaw. Garforth’s man of the match held the ball up before cutting back inside, though his cross was too strongly hit. Minutes later on the quarter-hour mark, Durham responded with a viciously struck shot that sailed over.
The dependable Mark Piper darted past his man on the right, surviving a clipped heel before gently curling a through ball into Brett’s path. The skipper took the ball in his stride, but his effort when sliding was cut wide.
Soon after, Greg left his marker to chase a through ball, but the wet grass was his undoing, and the chance went begging. The first twenty-five minutes belonged to Garforth, and the points seemed in reach.
A lean period followed, though the 149 in attendance were vociferous and seemed to enjoy the fare. As the half neared its end, the newly frisky Greg tried his luck with two speculative shots, the second of which from a neat cut in that slid wide, the first sailing just over. Durham came close with a cheeky daisy cutter of a free kick that almost caught keeper Phillis by surprise, but Town ended the first in the ascendancy.
Several people voiced this opinion, and it was the kiss of death. Five minutes in, Town were stunned when a cross fell kindly to be drilled back in, and the ball deflected past Phillis off the knee of Malcolm Holihue.
Ten minutes later, and Town shot themselves in the foot when they were countered by a quick break. The bounce of the ball on the wet surface wrong-footed a Town defender, and an inadvertent touch lifted the ball over Phillis, and the pursuing Durham attacker was able to cut the ball across the box to be converted by …erm… Johnny English. He braved several challenges to tuck the ball home, but then - he knows no fear.
Town were not dead, however, and a beautifully curled Duncan Williams in-swinger was almost headed in, and the following cross saw a shot blocked before the ball fell to Renshaw. Sadly, the ball was skied from ten yards, but Garforth were pressing and looking to score.
On halfway, Nathan Kamara was elbowed, and Durham elected to play on, though with great composure Piper claimed the ball, turned and played it out smoothly. Disaster soon struck however, as Ben Small made a perfectly fair tackle. Unfortunately, the recipient of this slide ended up smacking into the advertising boards, and the referee promptly sent Small off. This ended Garforth hopes.
The death knell sounded and the proverbial fat lady piped up in stoppage time with the Bananarama classic, when Durham claimed a breakaway goal through Callum Smith. This effectively made a closely contested match appear like a whitewash, but Town can look to bounce back from this with another spirited F.A Cup performance on Saturday, and we hope to see you all there.
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