2005/06 season match No.40
Tuesday, February 28th, 2006
Nationwide North
Alfreton Town 4, Harrogate Town 1
Report by Gordon Foster (Mansfield CHAD) and Pics by Phil Lucic.

WAITING for an Alfreton forward to score seems just like queueing for a bus to arrive.
You wait for ever, and then four come at once.
So it was at the Impact Arena on Tuesday night, when the Reds’ most entertaining display of the season brought their biggest win.
They went into the match on the back of a run of eight matches in which only five goals had been scored, and none of them by recognised strikers.
But all that changed on Tuesday. It may have been a day before the start of Lent, but the signs were that they have given up what the fans perceive as a too defensive approach in favour of attack.
And they were rewarded with a superb hat-trick by Jon Stevenson and a goal by fellow front man Mick Godber.
Godber has been prolific enough in cup ties, but amazingly this was only his second strike in the league since he returned from Worksop in September - his first was against the Tigers.
Stevenson, meanwhile, had not added to the Goals For column in the league table since October.
Player-manager Gary Mills said afterwards: “Strikers are there to score goals, and up to now we have been missing a lot of chances, but we took them tonight and it was good to see.
“The Goals Against column shows that defensively we’re doing OK, but we’ve not scored as many as we should.
“People say we’re a defensive side, and I totally disagree, but it’s about taking chances and that’s the reason we haven’t as many points as we should have.”
He added: “It was disappointing to go in for half time at 1-1 - we started very well but then put ourselves under pressure conceding too many free kicks.
“We stopped that in the second half and that helped us, we got on with the game and got the reward we deserved.
“But this was one game, and we’ve got to do it consistently, starting on Saturday against Hinckley, and if Jon and Mick can go on pulling together as they did tonight that will be fantastic.”
Mills could have added that his side always seem to perform better when he is on the field himself to influence the play, and his influence was manifest.
Harrogate may argue that they did not deserve to lose by such an emphatic margin. They did play their part in an enthralling game and had chances of their own.
In particular giant former Eastwood centre-forward Marc Smith was a regular source of problems in the air.
But Alfreton, too, could have had more, given a touch more luck in front of goal.
It took them only eight minutes to go in front, and there had already been chances at both ends by then.
In only the second minute Mark Turner got his body in the way to block Smith’s effort, and five minutes later Emeka Nwadike’s header onto the first corner of the match was cleared off the line by Paul Stoneman.
But within another minute Lee Featherstone crossed, Godber did what he does best, chesting down and laying off, and Stevenson drilled the ball low into the net from the edge of the box.
Nwasdike was only just off target with another bullet header from a corner, but Harrogate gradually played their way back, and as Danny Holland ghosted in onto a long free kick Mills got in a vital clearance at the expense of a corner.
And Mills was then well placed on the line to block Smith’s downward header from a free kick near the right corner flag.
A Harrogate goal was coming, and it arrived in the 28th minute from another set piece. Ian Clark delivered the ball into the right of the box, Smith rose high for the header, and Leigh Wood, almost on the line, made certain.
Subsequently Harrogate keeper Joe Anyon was in action to push Stevenson’s close range shot on the turn over the bar, but Clarke needed to time his challenge on Gareth Grant to perfection in the box to deny him a shot at goal.
Harrogate began the secondhalf on top, and when Godber restored Alfreton’s lead in the 51st minute it was rather against the play at the time.
It was a virtual copy of Harrogate’s goal except that it came from a corner. Turner rose to head the ball goalwards, Stevenson helped it on, and Godber applied the final touch from close in.
Penalty claims were refused when Godber lost possession to a challenge from behind by Jason Wray, and Anyon made a superb one-handed save to deny the striker in a one-on-one on the hour.
But two minutes later Stevenson ran onto a Turner clearance, evaded the attentions of two defenders, and coolly put the Reds 3-1 up.
Harrogate almost made a quick reply when Holland’s shot deflected off Turner to wrong-foot Simon Rayner who managed to parry, Clarke completing the clearance.
The hard, freezing surface took its toll when Stevenson’s downward header onto a corner bounced up so high that it cleared the bar.
But the busy little striker completed his hat-trick in the 74th minute, lashing in Godber’s astute lay-off onto Mills’ well-placed free kick.
That was effectively game over, and there was no way back for the play-off chasing visitors.
The only disappointment was the lowest league gate of the season. Several regular supporters, put off by recent displays, opted to stay away, and they missed the kind of performance they have long been demanding.
One person who was there though was recently appointed community officer Hannah Dingley.
It was her third visit to a Reds match since her appointment, and they have won all three.
The best seat in the ground is reserved for her against Hinckley on Saturday!
ALFRETON: Rayner, Mills, Featherstone, Clarke Turner, Howard, Bettney, Fisher, Godber (Rankine 90), Stevenson (Duffield 90), Nwadike. Subs not used: White, Chinn, Stevens.
HARROGATE: Anyon, Dunning, Clark, Wood, Stoneman, Wray (Jones 71), Grant, Hunter, Smith, Holland, Philpott. Subs not used: Ryan, Mason, Wood.
REFEREE: Wayne McIntosh of Lincoln.
ATTENDANCE: 217.
SCORERS: Alfreton - Stevenson 8, 62, 74; Godber 51. Harrogate - Wood 28.
CAUTION: Alfreton - Fisher 32 (dissent).
MAN OF THE MATCH: Jon Stevenson.