Garforth Town denied by fantastic display from Liversedge goalkeeper Jamie Abbott

Logan McDaniel

Garforth Town 2-2 Liversedge

By James Grayson (Twitter: @jamesAgrayson)

Garforth Town head coach Graham Nicholas praised Liversedge goalkeeper Jamie Abbott after his magnificent display denied the Miners all three points in the fairly one-sided Toolstation NCEL Premier Division clash.
Abbott was in exceptional form as Garforth, who hit seven past Winterton on Saturday, threw the kitchen sink at him throughout the match.
After Abbott kept Garforth at bay in the opening half-hour, Gibril Bojang scored a wonder-goal to put Liversedge ahead until Stephen Simpson equalised.
American utility man Logan McDaniel scored in the second half as Garforth took the lead, but as the clock hit 90 minutes, James Riordan snatched an unlikely point for the away side.
Liversedge only created a few chances on the night and Nicholas said: “It is two points dropped tonight.
“Luck was with them and it was a fantastic goalkeeping display (from Abbott. We had the chances, but we didn’t have the finishing touches so we will have to work on it in training.
“He (Abbott) was fantastic. He was very alert and very quick off his line. He made things very difficult because he threw his body in front of everything tonight.

“But, we have to be more clinical in front of goal because the amount of chances we had, it has just not been our night. I think on occasions when the shooting opportunity has come up, rather than take the shot I think we sometimes took the reverse move and played someone else in and tried to walk it in.

“When we went 2-1 up I thought ‘that’s it, there is no way back for them’ because defensively we looked solid at the back and well-organised. It (the match) was ours to take and it’s disappointing.”

James Riordan (right)

Liversedge, under the control of Sean Regan and former Wakefield FC coach John Pickup due to the absence of manager Eric Gilchrist, struggled to cope with Garforth’s fierce attack, despite the experience of centre-halves Riordan and Wes Milnes.
Milnes was playing his second game for Liversedge since leaving Frickley Athletic by mutual consent and he gave some much-needed leadership to the back four. But, the main problem for Liversedge was down the left as C J Lyle was causing mayhem for right-back Alastair Butters.
Inside the opening 30 seconds, Lyle had gone down the left-wing and crossed for Simpson, who fired wide from close range.
Garforth should have scored a few times in the next 30 minutes. Lyle produced two saves out of Abbott, while Simpson went close again and McDaniel blazed over with the goal gaping.
And against the run of play, Garforth were then made to pay for the missed chances. Bojang created a bit of room 25-yards from goal and curled a tremendous strike into the top corner – goalkeeper Karl Martens was helpless to stop the effort.
The Miners responded quickly when Abbott made his only mistake of the night. The Liversedge stopper spilled a cross and Simpson was on hand to score from the rebound.

Nick Black

Garforth continued attacking with intent in the second half and got their deserved second goal on 64 minutes. McDaniel broke through and neatly lobbed the onrushing Abbott and although Riordan managed to clear the ball, the assistant referee flagged to say that it had already crossed the line.

Garforth had opportunities to kill the game. Simpson had one shot saved and Saturday's hat-trick hero Nick Black saw a couple of attempts flash wide of the post.

And the wasted chances came back to haunt Garforth. After conceding a free kick 30 yards from goal, Riordan struck it with power and the ball took a huge deflection which took it past Martens.

As there was delay early on in the second half as assistant referee Martin Saville hurt his back after crashing into the railings which caused him to collapse to the ground, five minutes of injury-time followed.

That gave Garforth enough time to try and find a dramatic winner and stand-in captain Andy Hawksworth almost nicked Garforth the win in the closing seconds with a close range header, but Abbott stood firm with a comfortable save.

Garforth Town: Martens, Stohrer, Misambu, L Smith, Hawksworth, Boland (Cartman HT), Simpson, Rupere, Black, Lyle, McDaniel (Greenhalgh 86). Subs unused: Booker, Helliwell, D Smith.

Liversedge: Abbott, Butters, Haigh, Wood, Milnes, Riordan, Hitch, Thompson (Swallow 52 (Bugg 77), Johnston (Grogan 57), Riley, Bojang.

Referee: J Price (Bradford)

Attendance: 77

Man of the match: Jamie Abbott (Liversedge)