2006/2007 season Match no.21 - FA Trophy, third qualifying round
Saturday, November 25th, 2006
ALFRETON TOWN 0, Harrogate Town 1

Report by Gordon Foster (Mansfield CHAD). Pics by Phil Lucic.

THOSE responsible for balancing the books at Alfreton Town will have to do without any money from the FA competitions prize fund, as for the second time this season their home league form was turned upside down in cup football.
The Reds are unbeaten in the league at the Impact Arena, but have now bowed out of both the FA Cup and the Trophy on home soil and at the first hurdle.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Alfreton, who probably deserved at least a replay from a game where the upper hand switched from one side to the other and back again.
But it was Harrogate who made the most of one their spells of superiority and ensured their place in the first round proper when Danny Holland settled the tie in the 64th minute.
For the first half-hour it was the visitors who ran the show, but for the 15 minutes either side of half time the Reds were in charge, before Harrogate hit back with the all-important goal.
And although the home side pushed forward in a bid to rescue the tie in the final quarter, they were unable to breach the Harrogate defence.
The visitors, who are pushing for a place in the Conference National, had to manage without former Reds favourite Chris Bettney – a gentlemen’s agreement rules him out of any game against his former club this season.
And they were also able to name only three substitutes, one of these a goalkeeper.
But they applied the pressure from the start, and Alfreton had a huge let-off after only four minutes when, from Dave Merris’ pull-back, Roy Hunter lashed a 16-yard volley against the bar with Dale Roberts well beaten.
The Reds might have put their noses in front from their first real attack four minutes later. Ashley Burbeary’s angled free kick from the left was eventually played back out to him, and when he whipped in a dangerous cross aimed for Mark Rawle, the ball was taken off the striker’s outstretched leg by a defender who was relieved to concede a corner.
That, though, was as good as it got for the Reds in the first half-hour which they spent largely in their own half having to do an effective shut-out job.
But effective it certainly was, with Roberts needing to make only two real saves despite the visitor’s greater possession – the keeper holding Holland’s 18-yard volley under the bar and then diving to save a low 20-yard effort from Lee Philpott.
At last the Reds got their act together in midfield and for the remainder of the half they launched a succession of attacks on the visitors’ goal, with Burbeary on the left and Ryan Clarke on the overlap along the opposite flank getting in a number of crosses into the area for Rawle and David Reeves.
But it was skipper Marcus Ebdon who went closest, three minutes before the break. Good work by Clarke sent Rawle on a run into the area from the right, and when he was closed down by a posse of defenders he slipped the ball to his captain, whose 20-yard shot was brilliantly touched onto the post by keeper James Lindley. And although Rawle was first onto the rebound he could not keep his follow-up header on target.
Rawle had another good chance in stoppage time when, having outstripped Chris Ellerker, he dragged his finish wide.
Alfreton continued the second half where they had left off the first, doing most of the attacking, and when Clarke made another sparkling run along the right and crossed low for Reeves, Jamie Price stuck out a leg to deflect it for a corner.
Lindley came for and missed Burbeary’s ensuing flag kick, but his defence got him out of trouble before the Reds could capitalise, and when Harrogate swept quickly upfield for Holland to set up Colin Hunter, it was Clarke’s turn to get in the way and save the situation at the expense of another corner.
From then on Harrogate gradually re-asserted themselves, and Roberts needed a top drawer tip aside to deny Holland in the 63rd minute following substitute James McGarry’s pull-back from the by-line.
But a minute later Holland struck with more devastating effect when he was allowed a little too much room and slammed home Roy Hunter’s cross.
Alfreton’s immediate response was to send on Andy Tiday and Matt Glass for Tristram Whitman and Reeves, at the same time pushing the versatile Emeka Nwadike forward in support.
Nwadike had two efforts on goal in quick succession, the first blocked and the follow-up saved, and then when he received Tommy Hannigan’s neat dink over the top he was closed down by Chris Timons.
The former Mansfield defender was then booked for a blatant body-check on Tiday to halt the substitute’s powerful run forward from his own half.
Alfreton continued to push forward, but it was Harrogate who were closer to adding a second goal on the counter-attack when Holland hooked a volley onto the bar and behind, after McGarry had done the spadework and got the better of Hannigan.
Reflecting on the match afterwards, player-manager Gary Mills admitted that he was disappointed to have taken nothing from a hard-working performance.
“I thought we deserved to at least go back to their place for the work we put in,” he said. “But they had that little bit of quality, got a great cross in, and we switched off for a moment to allow them the space to score.
“But other than that I can’t fault the efforts of my players. We’ve come through a tough fortnight of four games including extra time on Tuesday and to come through that and play on a bog of a pitch was asking a lot of them. They gave everything they had but it just wasn’t to be.
“We all know how important finances are, we all want to get through for the sake of a financial boost, and the consequences of not doing so are self-evident.”
ALFRETON: Roberts, Clarke, Brown, Hannigan, Winder, Nwadike, Whitman (Tiday 64), Ebdon (Mills 72), Reeves (Glass 64), Rawle, Burbeary.
HARROGATE: Lindley, Price, Merris, Ellerker (McGarry ht), Timons, Dunning, C. Hunter, R. Hunter, L. Wood, Holland, Philpott. Subs not used: Thomas, M. Wood.
REFEREE: Leslie Sinclair of Newcastle-under-Lyme.
ATTENDANCE: 240.
SCORER: Harrogate – Holland 64.
CAUTIONS: Harrogate – Timons 81 (‘professional’ foul on Tiday); Dunning 85 (kicking ball away).
REDS MAN OF THE MATCH: Ryan Clarke.