Garforth 0 Pickering Town 1

It was a game in which the blustery conditions played a part throughout and with the wind on their backs first half the visitors had the better of the chances. Joe Danby came inches within giving his side an early lead on 8 mins, picking up a defensive clearance on the edge of the box and striking against the crossbar. In a good spell of pressure for the Pikes Andrew Simpson put through Ryan Cooper inside the box on 13 mins with only Town keeper Paul Hagreen to beat but the offside flag was raised. Moments later a good delivery into the box was headed over the bar by Alex Robinson. Lewis Taylor wasn't far off either on 16 mins with an arrowed strike just over the bar.

On 23 mins though the visitors took the lead, a short corner being played to Robbie Hawkes out wide who's deep cross caught the wind and sailed into the top corner.

Garforth set out to respond and once over the halfway line did manage to string a few chances together. On 28 mins a foray down the left ended in Danny Harris striking over the bar and on 39 mins Chris Simpkins headed wide at the back post after some good play from C J Lyle and captain Andy Hawksworth. In between a Pickering free-kick in a dangerous position saw Taylor drive low into the arms of Hagreen.

Five mins into the second half Hagreen had to be alert again to save Billy Logan's deflected strike. Soon after Simni Oyebanji came close when played in by Ashley Preece, beating Hawkes and firing against the side netting. On 55 mins Liam Smith's free kick was delivered to Hawksworth in the box who could only head well wide.

Town looked to use the wind in their favour while the visitors set out to defend their lead. Hawkes almost found the net a second time on 56 mins, this time at the wrong end but arguably having luck on his side again, slicing Oyebanji's corner inches over the bar.

A bit of squad rotation ahead of Wednesday meant we were without the firepower of top three scorers Luke Mangham, Nick Black and Tawanda Rupere. Despite this and to the team's credit some of the football played in the last 30 mins deserved at least a goal. Sadly a mixture of good defending and sheer luck on the part of the visitors meant the ball simply refusing to cross the line. One such move on 70 mins ended in Preece being denied by an alert Wayne Aziz. The resulting corner saw Harris pick out an unmarked Hawksworth who was unlucky to see his header rebound off the post before Mark Simpson smashed wide under pressure from Danby.

A rare Pickering attack on 73 mins saw Jamie Patterson almost complete a smash and grab, getting on the end of Ryan Woodhead's delivery but Hagreen got down to make the save.

The pressure down at the other end resumed two mins later but somehow we remained behind. A brilliant one-touch move saw Simpson, Liam Royles and Simpson again agonizingly denied by defensive blocks (including one seemingly by the arm of Aziz but dismissed by referee Andrew Smith) and a reaction save from Pikes keeper Toby Wells. The kitchen sink was thrown in for the resulting corner with Hagreen venturing forward but the result was the same; a Jassim Alali near post header blocked, the loose ball cleared and the players in yellow surviving again.

Even a "Hawksworth Special" four mins from time couldn't supply the equaliser; his long range effort from another corner just about dealt with by Wells. Hagreen tried to make use of the wind himself in injury time when taking a free kick 40 yards out but only to bring a save from his opposite number. In the end a battling performance from the North Yorkshire side who had done enough to take the points back up the A64. Graham Nicholas' side are left to mull over three defeats in three despite good performances in all, next Wednesday's final looks like the perfect distraction.