You couldn’t make it up!

Station View is not the place to be on a foul night weather-wise, where good football is almost impossible on a threadbare pitch and the officials seemed intent on playing the pantomime villains. That said, and although this was an awful game to watch, it had a strange allure that drew you in.

It probably wasn’t in Steve Kittrick’s game plan, but the Lions decided to make a game of it by gifting Railway the first goal after just two minutes as Simon Ainge thoughtfully trapped the ball for Paul Beesley, who gleefully accepted the offer and stabbed it home.

Gav Rothery and Danny Forrest both notched - www.onematchimage.com

Eighteen minutes later, and after Joe O’Neill had fluffed a couple of half chances to keep Athletic in front, Steve Palfrey waltzed past a couple of visiting defenders in best Strictly style and plonked the ball wide of Jacob Giles to double the home side’s lead.

Now for the fightback, but unfortunately the liner obviously hadn’t read the script but continued the pantomime, disallowing a perfectly good goal from Lee Ellington for offside, despite the fact that he had come from behind his own player and a home defender.  The boos, hisses and catcalls – although strangely no cries of “Behind you” – echoed around the massed ranks of 82 spectators before Ellington was tripped and Gavin Rothery converted the resultant spot kick to set the stage for a thrilling second half.

Curtain up and off we went; quarter of an hour in, Andy Holdsworth whipped in a free kick from the right touchline and Ainge turned from pantomime villain to superhero with a thumping header that left the home keeper clutching at fresh air.

In true pantomime fashion the three ugly sisters (O’Neill, Kevin Gall and Michael Burns) left the field to be replaced by Simon Baldry, Ciaran Toner and Danny Forrest, but who would be the eventual hero out of this trio? Read on to find out.

Could it be Ellington, who beat three defenders before swivelling and putting the visitors’ third into the far corner on 70 minutes? Or would it be Danny Boshell, who had to go off injured with quarter of an hour left? The mystery deepened even further when Steven Palfrey grabbed his second with a looping header over Giles for the equaliser in seemingly the last minute.

And just as the visiting fans were grumbling about missing their cocoa, up stepped that nice Mr Forrest to deliver the happy ending that we all craved. Taking the ball from the restart, he spotted the keeper wandering aimlessly around his area and launched an audacious shot from the halfway line that fairly flew into the net past the hapless home custodian, who was last seen munching grass in the back of the net.

And so we all went home happy ever after to await the next instalment of the County Cup saga, when either Brighouse or Halifax will be paying a visit to Nethermoor in early February.

Team:

1 – Jacob Giles

2 – Andy Holdsworth

3 – Dave Merris

4 – Michael Burns (Baldry 62)

5 – Jamie Clarke

6 – Simon Ainge 60

7 – Joe O’Neill (Forrest 62)

8 – Danny Boshell

9 – Kevin Gall (Toner 62)

10 – Lee Ellington 71

11 – Gavin Rothery 39 (P)

12 – Danny Forrest

14 – Danny Ellis

15 – Ciaran Toner

16 – Simon Baldry

18 – Steve Drench

Next Up:

3:00 pm
Pitching In Northern Premier League Premier Division

Prescot Cables vs Guiseley