Resilient Railway take Spennymoor to cup replay.
Harrogate Railway and Spennymoor Town drew 0-0 in a game of few chances last Saturday afternoon to take the FA Cup tie to a Tuesday night replay at Brewery Field.
Lee Ashforth made four changes to his Railway side from Monday’s defeat to Scarborough and handed Nathanial Pells a debut in the heart of defence.
Spennymoor produced their best chance of the first half when Anthony Peacock’s cross was headed past the post by Liam Henderson.
Railway almost took the lead after 34 minutes when Ryan Sharrocks clipped a ball into the path of Jack Stockdill, who burst through the defence and fired at goal only for Daniel Lowson to get his torso in the way of the shot.
Railway’s best chance came four minutes before the break when Jordan Outerbridge lofted a ball over the visitors’ defence for Charlie Clamp to run on to, the midfielder opened his body up looking to stroke into the top right corner, but his attempt missed the target.
Spennymoor were enjoying a spell of pressure around the hour mark and Railway needed a couple of vital blocks from Lawrance Hunter to prevent Tom Goodwin being tested.
Goodwin was needed a minute later, however, as the 19-year-old sprung to his left to turn Stephenson’s powerful shot round the post.
Arguably Spennymoor’s biggest chance fell to Henderson, the man who had given his team a point when the two sides met 12 days ago, but the striker couldn’t find the net on this occasion as his close range header was too weak and caught comfortably.
In the 84th minute, substitute Gavin Cogdon broke through the Railway back line and struck a low shot that clipped Goodwin and looked to be landing in the back of the net, only for Hunter to sprint back to the line and save a certain goal by heading over.
With Spennymoor piling bodies forward deep into added time, Railway’s new centre-back pairing of Alex Low and Pells held firm making a series of crucial blocks.
