Athersley 1 Garforth Town 4

Despite a return for defender Sam Denton, and for midfielder Max Elliott after a long spell out injured, manager Paul Marshall was forced into a number of changes for this one due to injury and player unavailability. Helmo Silva, Sam Leach and Soni Fergus were given starts replacing injured Charlie Marshall and Lee Turner and unavailable Joe Colley and Alex Low.

Pitch inspections at noon and on the match referee's arrival threatened to make this a wasted journey for all concerned, however once underway both teams creditably rolled their sleeves up and put on a decent game of football despite the atrocious conditions.

Sam Leach came close to a first club goal when seeing his 20 yard strike tipped over the bar by Athersley keeper Ross Pritchard, but Town gave themselves an early lead soon after when Sean Hunter picked out Sam Barker in the box to shoot low into the bottom corner of the net.

There was a good chance for Mark Simpson after more good work by Hunter left him free in the box, but he only could drag a shot well wide. Simpson forced a good stop at the near post from Dan Williams' delivery, then an already warrior-like Leach was unlucky to clip the top of the crossbar with a curling strike. Simpson was denied again by Pritchard from another Hunter cross, before there was a rare chance for Athersley on 36 mins when Toby Wells pushed wide a low drive from former Town striker Shane Kelsey.

Simpson looked odds-on to double our advantage moments later when rounding Pritchard, but with an open goal at his mercy could only blaze a shot over the bar.

The Miners were made to pay for not making their first half possession count when The Penguins equalised two minutes after the break. A scramble from a corner delivered into the box found Alex Hutchinson who pounced on a loose ball to fire into the net.

Happily for Garforth however, a devastating nine-minute spell ended any fears of being on the end of our opponents' first home victory of the season. Portugese midfielder Helmo Silva had been relishing his first start of the campaign and was rewarded when Williams' delivery found him unmarked in the box to sidefoot beyond Pritchard to restore our lead.

Perhaps with the 100-goal mark so close (and some stolen boots!) weighing on his mind, it was a day to forget in front of goal for Simpson, but he had an assist to his name on 53 mins. Doing well on the right, he picked out top-scorer Hunter at the far post to head home for a fourth goal in as many games. Simpson was unlucky not to make it 4-1 moments later when he was put through with an onrushing Pritchard to beat, but saw his shot strike the foot of the post. It was four shortly after though when another break saw Barker get the better of defender George Bland to fire across Pritchard and into the net for his second.

There followed more bad luck for Simpson when the woodwork was struck for a third time; making a great down the left and shooting low across Pritchard but off the far post and somehow straight to a recovering defender. Denton was denied a hattrick from Williams's long throw when Pritchard denied him at the near post, before late on Simpson raced clear only for Pritchard to make another stop to keep the score down.

It could've been more, but a professional display nonetheless from Paul Marshall's side which lifts us up to 8th in the table. Next up on Wednesday 6th is a third attempt at getting our County Cup First round tie at Eccleshill played, kick-off 7:45pm. Fingers crossed!