Lancaster City 2-2 Farsley Celtic

Lancaster looked comfortable in the opening exchanges but found themselves behind after a low shot fro m Kyle Harrison found the corner of the net from 12 yards.

Two goals in 10 minutes from Joe Whittington and Billy Akrigg saw City go in at half-time a goal to the good before Hunter put the ball into his own net with just two minutes to play.

The first game since Darren Peacock and Trevor Sinclair’s departures started well with Lancaster opting to play a more direct form of football.

This proved to be a wise move as the Dolly Blues had several shots on goal in the opening 15 minutes with Whittington coming closest as his ambitious chip from 20 yards was saved by Tom Taylor.

This good start didn’t last long though as Farsley began to push for an opening goal.

Jonathan Lewis beat the offside trap but couldn’t beat Mike Hale one-on-one before a couple of minutes later the visitors had the ball in the back of the net but it was adjudged to be offside.

Shortly after, Farsley broke the deadlock after a corner wasn’t cleared sufficiently, the ball being headed into the path of Harrison who shimmied past Gavin Clark before rifling a low shot into the bottom left corner.

This goal forced City to attack Farsley and with 10 minutes to go in the first half they found themselves level after a gift from defender Neil Stevens.

His horrendously under hit back pass gave Whittington the chance to run at Farsley keeper Taylor one-on-one and after feigning a shot the winger took the ball round the keeper and slotted the ball home to give the Lancaster faithful some much-needed hope.

On the stroke of half-time City then went in front. After a goalmouth scramble, Taylor laid off to Akrigg who curled the ball into the top right corner of the goal from 15 yards.

The second half immediately became much more difficult for Lancaster though as they found themselves down to 10 men just six minutes in.

Jacob Davis slid in on Ross Daly with his studs up, went over the top of the ball and caught the Farsley player with a dangerous challenge that deserved a red card.

Cue the Farsley onslaught. They pushed and pushed but couldn’t turn their domination into goals.

Lancaster sat back and invited pressure and only stayed a goal in front due to the heroics of Hale who made a brilliant point blank save to deny Lewis from close range.

City nearly hit the visitors on the break as Shaquille Antoine-Clarke shot just wide from 20 yards after some great buildup play by Clark.

But the equaliser came with just two minutes to play. A quick attack from Farsley caught City off guard and a low, hard cross was put into his own net by Hunter as a valiant Blues display ended in disappointment.

Lancaster: Hale, Gregory, Clark, Davis, Marshall (capt), Hunter, Winder, Akrigg, Pearce (Tam), Taylor (Poole), Whittington (Antoine-Clarke). Subs not used: Carlton, Street.

Farsley Celtic: Taylor, Hardy, Grant, O’Brien (capt), Riley, Harrison, Nightingale, Daly, Walker, Lewis, Stevens (Hancock). Subs not used: Sugden, Wigley, Jenkinson, Lofthouse.

Referee: Kevin Mattocks