Harrogate Railway not getting carried away following comprehensive wins against whipping boys

Nathan Merchant bagged a hat-trick as Harrogate Railway thrashed NCEL Division One basement boys Ollerton Town. Pictures: Gerard Binks

The Starbeck outfit followed up an 8-1 win against NCEL Division One’s bottom side earlier this month with a 7-0 away success on Saturday afternoon.

These emphatic victories have lifted the Rail up to 12th place in the table, while significantly improving their goal-difference, but the fact that Ollerton have now lost 29 league games on the bounce means that Youhill isn’t reading too much into either result.

"We have done alright in those two games, but without being disrespectful to Ollerton, they are a side who we have got to be beating,” he said.

“We’ve gone about our business in the right way, however we are certainly not going to get ahead of ourselves or get too excited about these results.

“The good thing about Saturday was the ruthlessness and relentlessness in the second half, where we played well and looked dominant. And that was important really because in the first half we were sloppy and almost dropped our standards.

“Probably the most pleasing aspect was the fact that we scored some scrappy goals, which has been a rarity this season. Too often we have tried to create the most perfect goals, and it was nice to see us just sticking the ball in the back of the net in horrible fashion as it is something that we need to get better at.

“As a coach, I am always more worried about the performance as opposed to the result, but going into these games we knew that if we got the performance anywhere near right, then the result would take care of itself.”

Nathan Merchant led the way for Railway with a hat-trick, while Sam Clothier bagged a brace and Neal Davies and Joe Navier also struck.

Next up is a home showdown with another of the division’s struggling sides, second-from-bottom Swallownest.

But Youhill is not expecting an easy ride at Station View.

"Swallownest on Saturday will be a different proposition to Ollerton,” he added.

"And they are a much stronger team than they were when we played them earlier in the season, so we cannot afford to take anything for granted.”

Kick-off at Station View is at 3pm.