Connor Whitley is a 23-year-old politics graduate who will begin his Master’s in Sports Journalism at the University of Salford in September. A member of the FA Young Reporter’s club since its inception, he has covered the FA Cup, FA Women’s Cup, FA Youth Cup and the FA Women’s Championship. You can follow him on Instagram @cwhitleyshoots and Twitter @ConnorJWhitley
Hall Road Rangers and Goole AFC met in the extra preliminary round of the Emirates FA Cup for the first time since the visitors relegated the hosts in dramatic fashion last season.
The pair faced off on the final day of the 2018-19 Northern Counties East League Premier Division campaign in a winner-takes-all match to stay up. Goole won that game and also heaped more misery on Rangers on Saturday with a comfortable 3-0 win at Haworth Park.
Before the game Hall Road’s secretary Alan Chaplin said he expected a “more relaxed atmosphere” but tempers slowly boiled over in windy conditions.
After winning the toss, Goole’s joint-managers Matty Bloor and Terry Barwick told their team to switch sides so they could play with the wind behind them.
It was a shrewd tactic, but it still needed a Rangers error for The Vikings to go 1-0 ahead. Rangers centre-back Dave Harrison misjudged the bounce of the ball and his subsequent mishit allowed Ward to prod home when one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
For the majority of the first-half the wind was actually a burden for the away side as they often overhit balls. Bloor, who also played in the game, said afterwards, “Playing with the wind didn’t suit us, we said at half-time now we can overhit things and the ball will still be in play.”
The second half was disappointing for Hall Road. Manager Leon Sewell conceded afterwards his team “might as well have packed up and gone home after half time.”
Ward got his second goal 10 minutes after the restart. After dancing into the box, he fired home from just inside the area, low to the goalkeeper’s right.
Goole’s third came in the 70th minute when Devonte Morton almost teed up Ward for his hat-trick, but he was denied by the post. Luckily for the visitors, the rebound fell to Josh Schofield who fired the ball into the roof of the net.
After Goole’s third goal tempers began to flair. A badly-timed challenge from Rangers’ Sam Foster prompted a mass ruck, but the officials did well to calm everyone down.
Just like at the end of last season, it was Goole who came out victorious and now have an Emirates FA Cup run to look forward to following their first victory in the competition for eight years.
“Every year a team from our level goes on a run,” said Barwick after the game. “We are going to try our best to make this our year.”
