Glasshoughton Welfare earn first win of season at Garforth Town

Garforth Town 1-2 Glasshoughton Welfare

By James Grayson (Twitter: @jamesAgrayson)

Match Photos are HERE

Glasshoughton Welfare survived a nervy finish at Wheatley Park to record their first three points of the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division season.

Welfare had raced into an early 2-0 lead through Dan Middleton and Calum Ward goals before club captain Darrell Young saw his penalty saved on the half-hour mark.
This allowed Garforth a way back and Josh Cartman’s strike before half-time gave the Miners a lifeline. But, goalkeeper Paul Hagreen made a couple of top saves to deny the home side and Glasshoughton held on for a deserved win to leave their manager Rob Hunter delighted.

Paul Hagreen

“It is great to get three points and we have deserved more out of the first two league games,” he said.

“Today we were the better team for most of the match and created 12 or 14 chances in the game. Our finishes let us down, but we had a couple of unbelievable individual performances, certainly from Alex Low who is a new signing.

“He had an outstanding game at the back. And then Calum Ward’s all-round performance today was absolutely top draw. He got a great goal, won us a penalty and hit the post for the first goal and his all-round performance was fantastic so I’m really pleased.

“I think our midfielders Liam Tuck and Dan Middleton controlled things for most of the game. We were so far on top at 2-0 and we could have three or four goals at that point. We got a penalty and missed it and all of a sudden, Garforth are back in it.

“With Garforth scoring before half-time, the key thing for us was killing the game off in the first ten minutes of the second half. I didn’t mind wasting time or booting the ball out of the ground or hitting the ball upfront for Rob Pell and Calum Ward.
“I didn’t want us playing at 100mph in the first ten minutes of the second half. We did really well at that.”

Rob Pell

Whilst Hagreen was in top form, Glasshoughton looked in great shape going forward. The return of experienced target man Rob Pell, making his first appearance of the season, made a huge difference as the Garforth defence couldn’t handle him and Ward.

Pell, who plays for Glasshoughton on an ad-hoc basis held the ball up exceptionally, while Ward made some fantastic runs and was responsible for the first goal. The former Tadcaster Albion striker won the ball back off defender Adam Clark, who Garforth head coach Graham Nicholas said was “unfit” and broke into box and struck the ball low and hard toward goals.

The ball pinged back off the post and fell to Garforth midfielder Joshua Greenhalgh on the edge of the penalty area. But, Middleton was quick to react and easily dispossessed him and fired a low shot into the bottom corner for the first goal.

Nicholas had seen enough of Clark’s performance and withdraw the defender, who during his 25 minute display had been given the run-around by Pell and Ward. Glasshoughton kept going and Middleton turned provider by breaking down the middle of the pitch before supplying Ward with the ammunition for goal number two.

And less than a minute later, Welfare were awarded a penalty and a chance to finish the game off after Ward was fouled by Garforth captain Nick Allen. Young stepped up and placed the ball to the left of Dominic Smith. Unfortunately for Young, Smith guessed correctly and palmed the ball for a corner.

The penalty proved to be a turning point as Garforth became the dominant side and only three top saves from Hagreen stopped them from scoring.
Town did break through close to half-time when Young gave the ball away cheaply which gave Cartman a clean run through on goal – a chance the striker did not waste.
With Welfare yet to win this season, the jitters could have easily set in for the second half. But they didn’t and Greig McGrory and Russell Headley both went close to adding a third goal as Welfare controlled the majority of the second half with the help of Pell and Ward’s hold-up play upfront.



Garforth missed the presence of injured attackers Nick Black and Tawanda Rupere as the pair are key players. But, the Miners did finish the game as the stronger side as Hagreen made two top saves before CJ Lyle wasted a glorious chance in the dying seconds to equalise.
An equaliser would have been hard on Glasshoughton who deserved to win and earn a result that consigns Garforth to their first defeat in two games.
A disappointed Garforth head coach Nicholas said: “It is disappointing because I gave faith in some players who came in as a squad player and they’ve been dogged in saying ‘give me a chance’ and they haven’t been good enough on the day.
“They are not fit enough so the fitness levels need improving and we’ll be doing that on Wednesday at training. Some of them have got to buck their ideas up or they will be out.

“I think sloppy mistakes is where it went wrong today and the midfield was non-existent. You’re asking midfield players to tackle and be brave and we didn’t and we got punished.

“I think defensively we were poor and sometimes we got too tight and we allowed the strikers to bully us at times. When we had the ball we were looking for clever movement upfront, it was non-existent so as a team performance we were very poor today.”

Garforth Town: Smith, Hawksworth, McDaniel, Allen, Clark (Boland 25), Greenhalgh, Lyle, Stohrer, St Juste (Balis 73), Cartman, Oybanji (Hemingway 62). Subs unused: Woodhall, Nicholas.

Glasshoughton Welfare: Hagreen, Hirst, D Ward, Tuck, Low, Young, McGrory (Donnelly 62), Middleton (Corley 80), Pell (Edwards 90), C Ward, Headley. Subs unused: Wilson, Chappell.

Referee: James Bell (Sheffield)

Attendance: 124

Man of the match: Paul Hagreen (Glasshoughton Welfare)