By Sam Gillinder
Horsforth St Margaret’s lost 4-2 against Bradford (Park Avenue) featuring a shambolic defensive performance typical of this season’s league campaign.
In this season’s West Yorkshire Association Football League Division One, they seem to be constantly moving two steps forwards and then taking two steps back.
Before this they had won one then drawn one then lost one in that order – twice. It’s fair to say it’s been a bit stop-start, or start-stop would actually be a more accurate way to describe it.
Their previous result before this game was a 3-2 defeat away to Leeds City.
This fixture against Bradford on the familiar patch of King George’s Field, their home venue, was where they could try to get back on track.
During the first half of the game there were signs of positivity from the home team, on a couple of occasions they looked dangerous down the right with Jake Kilbride and Charlie Webb providing threats in the build up but there was no end product to produce a goal. The ball found the net after 37 minutes but the goal was chalked off through a foul on the goalkeeper.
The first half finished with the score 0-0
Within the first few minutes of the second half Adam Gregory should have scored when he found himself one on one with the keeper however he squandered the chance and couldn’t find a goal.
Chances started to materialise for both teams as the game opened up.
It was Bradford who found the first goal, they went one nil up on 59 minutes with a shot from inside the penalty area after they found space between the Horsforth defence.
Their second goal was almost a carbon copy; the only difference was that the ball ended up in the opposite side of the net.
Michael Wood then missed a guilt edged chance to get a goal back but redeemed himself a minute later with a neat finish to the bottom left of the goal to make the score 2-1.
But Horsforth conceded a third with the defensive frailties exposed in another similar position.
And the score was made 4-1 when the ball was fumbled in a dangerous position by the Horsforth defence and Bradford were allowed to score with an unmissable chance.
Horsforth found a consolation goal two minutes from time. A corner was put in and although an initial shot hit the bar Lachlan Quirk found the net from the rebound.
Lachlan Quirk is adamant that this is a temporary state of low confidence and that the season’s success will start to pick up soon.
Sponsored content
