Garforth Town 1 - Warrington Town 1

A scruffy stoppage time equaliser robbed Garforth of the win they have long deserved, and with it two points as visiting Warrington snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat and cost the Miner’s an overdue victory in front of their home fans at the Genix.

The home Town enjoyed the lion’s share of possession early doors, and most of the chances throughout. Garforth first came close when a lofted cross was lifted an inch too high for Andy Hayward to convert at the far post. Shortly thereafter Jason St Juste latched onto a through ball down the wing, and cut inside before unleashing a shot that was blocked. Most outlandishly of all, Oliver Hotchkiss tried making his tenure at Town that bit more memorable with an attempt to recreate the goal against Wimbledon that launched David Beckham to superstardom. Sadly, he couldn’t quite Bend It Like Beckham, and though the goalkeeper would have been bested by his fifty-yard effort, the shot sailed wide.

Controversy reared its head when a Warrington miscreant clearly kicked Duncan Williams after the Garforth youngster had been bundled to the ground right in front of his own bench, and the linesman. No official punishment was meted out.

St Juste almost scored with another penalty box effort, and el capitano Brett Renshaw proved the there is life in the old legs after his recent Mexican sojourn with a brilliant burst upfield leading to a Duncan Williams inswinger that caused confusion in the Warrington box, though Garforth could not force the goal.

The best chance of the first half occurred when Greg Kelly found himself through on goal, but last seasons 17 goal wing back was unable to apply the scoring touch, and his shot was well saved. The half concluded with a blatant trip on Jason St Juste, though no penalty was awarded.

By now Garforth were lining up to take shots at the Warrington shot stopper, and it would not be long before one such opportunity presented itself to be converted. That duly occurred in the first play of the second half, when penalty box confusion allowed the hard working Renshaw to fire home with a fine finish on forty-six minutes.

Hotchkiss tested the goalkeeper with a curled free kick on the hour mark, to which Warrington finally responded with a Giggs-esque mazy run (Ryan, the good one) from an attacker followed by a low shot that blazed wide. Ross and Brett were proving assured at the back, and they needed to be as the visiting plastic Scousers finally strung together some attacking plays to test the Garforth back line.

A lifted pass found Williams on the far post, but the chance was hard and his header was saved. Duncan was finding himself in some dangerous positions, which was reassuring as Warrington maintained a good ten minutes of pressure leading up to this point. Best of all, Renshaw released substitute Dom Blair on 85 minutes, who ran and fed Kelly on the left. The versatile winger laid off Hotchkiss, whose curled effort agonisingly drifted an inch wide.

Even so, Town looked to have bagged a confidence boosting win until a shockingly scrappy, ugly, brutal, horrible, nasty, horrifying, atrocious, ghastly, unseemly goal emanating from a scramble that saw the ball travel through a mass of players in the Garforth box several times before ricocheting off a leg and into the net on 96 minutes. Regardless, there are positives to take from the performance, and every step in the right direction is one worth taking.