Harrogate Railway's Joel Freeston comes off the substitutes' bench to net hat-trick in victory over Armthorpe Welfare

Joel Freeston was all smiles following Harrogate Railway's 4-1 victory over Armthorpe Welfare. Picture: Craig Dinsdale

Making his first appearance of the season for the Starbeck outfit's first team having spent 2022/23 banging in goals for the reserves in Division One of the West Yorkshire League, he netted three times in the space of 37 second-half minutes.

The game was still in the balance and locked at 1-1 when Freeston was introduced, Fatlum Ibrahmi's superb strike on the stroke of half-time having cancelled out Kane Reece's 31st-minute opener for the visitors.

And O'Connell was delighted with the impact that the former Knaresborough Town forward made on a contest which Railway needed to win to reclaim second place in the NCEL Division One standings.

"Fair play to Joel. To come in and affect the game when you've not played with a team is really hard," the Rail boss said.

"All three finishes were proper strikers' finishes. The first one, one-versus-one he showed composure, the second one is a great finish, he gets over the ball, a lot of people would get under the ball there and miscue it.

"That's what Joel is, a proper striker.He plays on the shoulder, he plays in and around the box and he sniffs goals out.

"So I'm really pleased with Joel, but overall the performance in the second half, I thought that we were excellent."

Freeston’s first of the evening arrived in the 53rd minute and was followed by efforts in the 82nd and 90th minutes.

His efforts meant that Railway ran out as comfortable victors in the end, however things could easily have played out very differently.

"We didn't start the game very well,” O’Connell added. “The first 20-25 minutes we looked nervous. We invited a lot of pressure and, fair play to Armthorpe, they didn't half put it on us.

"I said to the lads at half-time that we were lucky to get in at 1-1, they probably should have been 3-1 or 4-1 up, being honest.

"The equaliser came for us at a good time. It was an unbelievable finish from Fatlum. We worked our way back into the game, settled down a little bit. It was definitely a game of two halves."

Next up for Railway is a home showdown with Parkgate this Saturday, 3pm kick-off at Station View.