Mistakes hand Barton Town Old Boys victory over Garforth Town

Barton Town Old Boys 2-0 Garforth Town

By James Grayson (Twitter: @jamesAgrayson)

Two first half mistakes gave Barton Town Old Boys a deserved victory over visitors Garforth Town in the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division encounter last night.

Inside 90 seconds, Gareth Barlow capitalised on a mix-up between Garforth captain Nick Allen and goalkeeper Karl Martens to score the opening goal.
Then on 28 minutes, Martens punched Ashley Lattimore’s corner into his own net and that ended Garforth’s three match winning run and earned Barton a fifth straight league victory.

Garforth head coach Graham Nicholas admitted that it was an off-night for his team.

“Mistakes cost us, but it’s a team game so we need to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes,” he said.
“I think Karl knows. He held his hands up at half-time. I think for the first one we have to react quicker, but the second one was a goalkeeper fumble.
“We didn’t create much though. We missed some key players. Nick Black is out, while Stephen Simpson came down with a bug today so we had to reshuffle a few players around and we never looked well-balanced. We didn’t look sharp up top today.

“But, I did think we would get back into it because I saw their weaknesses and we tried exploiting that. I thought the full-backs and the centre-halves weren’t compact and that is where I thought we could cause danger.

“I tried saying to our lads ‘look for them through balls’ because they were so wide apart, the distances were too wide.
“But, I’m not taking anything away from them because I think they closed us down very well. They have a strong work ethic and they were just hungrier for the ball.”

Nick Allen is a doubt for Saturday's trip to Winterton Rangers



That hunger was the main reason why Barlow was able to score after just 90 seconds. Anticipating a mix-up between Allen and Martens, the striker made a move towards goal. Martens attempted to clear the ball, but Barlow got in the way and the ball cannoned off his leg and fell into the back of the net.
Garforth never got going during the first half. C J Lyle was consistency caught offside and Barton goalkeeper Ben White was a mere spectator.
And when Martens accidently diverted Lattimore’s corner into the net, Barton looked comfortable and sat back to protect their lead.
Martens redeemed himself on the stroke of half-time with a superb save from Lattimore’s free kick.
The second half was a non-event with neither team testing the respective goalkeeper. Tawanda Rupere and Lyle caused minor problems, but Barton were able to deal with them.

In the closing stages, Andy Hawkeworth’s header was cleared off-the-line. That was the closest Garforth came to scoring.

Apart from the defeat, the only blow Garforth took was the injury to captain Allen who had to limp off with 15 minutes to go.

Allen is a doubt for Saturday’s trip to strugglers Winterton Rangers, who are now under new management after Leigh Herricks resigned.

Former Barton chief executive Paul Friskney is the new manager.

Barton Town Old Boys: White, Bunch, Gill, Belcher, Dexter, Cooper, Sherwood, Barlow (Funnell 67), Thompson (Slater 84), Lattimore. Subs unused: Bennett, Owen, Shipman.

Garforth Town: Martens, Boland, McDaniel, Allen (Robinson 73), Hawksworth, Hilton (Misambu 63), Rupere, Cartman, Lyle, Stohrer, Greenhalgh (Booker 63). Subs unused: Smith, Nicholas.

Referee: M McGrath (Hull)
Attendance: 80
Man of the match: Ash Dexter (Barton Town Old Boys)