Harrogate Town’s late strike was enough to defeat The Lions at The CNG Stadium on a sunny Tuesday evening. 

Mark Beck’s header across the trialist keeper and into the bottom corner proved to be the only goal in this pre-season friendly.

Town dominated the possession during the first half but our trialist goalkeeper wasn’t kept busy by the Vanarama National League side only on catching duty from crosses.

The Lions meanwhile had issues with hitting the target, Aaron Martin was played in by Aaron Johnson but he couldn’t keep his effort down and the ball sailed out of the ground.

It was the last five minutes of the first half where the pressure cranked up on the hosts, Dylan Barkers’ header was well saved by Joe Cracknell.

Then the resulting corner from trialist no 10 just evaded Martin but seconds later Kaine Felix twisted and turned in the area but his shot struck the side netting.

The second half was limited on chances for both sides and it was Beck’s header in the 82nd minute that settled the contest, substitute Brendan Kiernan put in tempting cross and the big striker took full advantage with a clinical header.

Team: 1. A Trialist, 2.George Cantrill, 3. A Trialist, 4. Dylan Barkers (46′ McNally), 5. Hamza Bencherif, 6. Scott Garner, 7. Kaine Felix, 8. Jamie Spencer, 9. Aaron Martin, 10. A Trialist and 11. Gabriel Johnson. Subs: 12. Reiss McNally (46’Barkers). Unused subs: 13. Declan Lambton, 14. Kennedy Digie, 15. Will Thornton, 16. Tabish Hussain, 17. Scott Smith, 18. Aleks Starcenko, 19. Paul Clayton, 20. A Trialist, 21. A Trialist, 22. Nathan Newall and 23. Andrai Jones

Attendance: 340