For the last few weeks, Garforth Town have taken advantage of local facilities as they have been training at the Virgin Active gym on St George Street in Leeds.

After they were  given a 2 week free membership by the gym, Garforth Town Manager Steve Nichol decided to accept the offer and the team have benefitted as a result. With the weather as bad as it has been, training would have been made much easier and enabled players to fully prepare for their up-coming matches. In the past few years, Physical strength has become a crucial aspect within football, which is one of the main reasons why Steve took this offer. Their recent results on the field are very encouraging and this could be down to the work done in the gym.

Membership Consultant, trainer and ex-player, Abbas Sadeghian, felt both Garforth Town and the gym could reap the benefits of this agreement and said:

The session we ran with the lads was quality for many reasons -  making people aware of local teams (Garforth Town), To show people the levels of performance that can be achieved within classes through the players and also advertisement for our self and your club

I did the sessions to see if we could set anything up with the club to work with the players on a one to one basis in order achieve maximum performance. “

It is yet to be seen whether or not Garforth Town will continue to use the gym but it’s something that the squad have enjoyed doing for the past few weeks.

By James Wade and Reiss Silva

"Decisions Favoured the Home Team"

Garforth Town manager Steve Nichol was understandably unhappy with the way his team were beaten when they had made most of the running in the top-of-the-table encounter -

"We are disappointed with Saturday, we always play to win and on the balance of the game we should have beaten one of the top sides in this league, we controlled it for 80 minutes, worked the ball into good areas but lacked the quality which we possess when in those areas to deliver the final ball.

The game was made difficult due to the wind and the first goal was always going to be key.  In the second half our pressure was growing, we scored that first goal but, as the replays show it was wrongly ruled out.

 Curzons' second goal was also offside and the referee’s assistant apologised for his error after the game.  The referee had a fine game, but two important decisions by each assistant were wrong and favoured the home team – this is not hyperbole, the evidence is clear on our video page of the website.

The game changed on such fine margins, apparently such decisions will even themselves up over the course of the season but I don’t really buy into that, we make our own luck and the rewards we achieve are a direct result of our efforts.

We did let Curzon into the game and should have prevented each of those goals. After the first we should have stood stronger, regrouped; we are top scorers in the league, which is no mean feat and worked our way back into the game. We have shown the character to do this in previous games. To a degree we should expect failure and be prepared for it, a missed shot or goal conceded but rather than standing around waiting we must respond in the correct manner. Those moments in response to a little adversity are crucial.

Games like this will be tight and are usually lost rather than won. What I mean by that is games are mostly won not by a piece of individual brilliance but because of a mistake during a crucial moment.

That is football, it is fine margins and it was the difference on Saturday, Curzon despite being on the back foot capitalised on our mistakes.

It is one game and a good reality check, because of this game we will win another in which we maybe aren’t playing well enough to win. Our form over the last 20 games is very good, we know we can defeat the top sides in this league and have done home and away.

We learn from the Curzon game and move on. The only way the mistakes from this game can be avoided is by the correct approach to training and preparation, it will depend on two factors - how hard the players work during practice and how well they behave between practice, you can neither maintain or attain proper condition without working at both.

For the remainder of the season the players must discipline themselves to do what is expected of them for the welfare of the team if the players follow this it will be a rewarding second half to the season but if they fail to live up to these standards they will fail to some degree."

Garforth lose for the first time in five games

By Jonathan McGourty

It was blowing a gale at The Tameside Stadium, but that shouldn't have affected any regulars to Garforths' Genix Healthcare Stadium too much!

Walker and Brown were paired up front as Adam Priestley recovers from injury.

Town had the wind behind them in the first half but failed to take advantage. Chances for either side were at a premium although Garforth had more of the ball, with Paul Walker having two cracks at goal cutting in from the left.

Despite starting the second half stronger and having a David Brown goal incorrectly chalked off for offside, the Miners fell behind to a goal Lee Blackshaw on sixty five minutes. A cross on the run from Chris McDonagh allowed Blackshaw a free header in front of goal. Goals from McDonagh on sixty nine and seventy minutes followed, effectively killing the game off in the space of six minutes.

McDonagh should have opened his account moments before he did, when he scuffed wide of an open goal from a few yards out. The Curzon captain regained his composure minutes later as he steered a shot inside Ben Higginsons' near post.

McDonaghs' second was a wind-assisted effort. Higginson punted a goal kick that was driven back towards the Town area by the gale. A flick-on left Curzons' danger man with a simple tap-in.

It looked like Town were heading for a hammering until a re-shuffle and the appearance of Matt Mathers turned things round.
Mathers pulled one back, but time was against Garforth.

The performance was there, and Garforth played like the home side. So, while the manner of the defeat was hurtful at the time, there are still plenty of positives to take from the game and picking themselves up for the visit of Fylde won't be a problem.

Town hit by injury

By James Wade

Just as one player returns another one is side-lined as Garforth’s latest victory has come with a cost.

The return of Ollie Hotchkiss , who was rested for the Durham City game due to medical advice , has been over-shadowed by the news that top scorer Adam Priestley , 21 , has strained his knee ligaments meaning he could be out for a minimum of 2 weeks. 

Half an hour after coming on as a second half substitute, Priestley, with 15 goals already this season, took a painful knock to the knee which left him in some discomfort resulting in him having to be helped off the pitch. This could rule him out of the clashes against the top 2, Curzon Ashton and AFC Fylde and possibly see him miss out on the prospect of facing local rivals Farsley FC in the West Riding County Cup Quarter Final on the 31^st January.

Everyone at the club would like to wish him a speedy recovery.