Top scorer Garrity not panicking

Ben Garrity reflects on the season so far, his goal-scoring tally and looks ahead as the Yellows push for a play-off spot. 

Garrity’s 11th goal of the season saw the Yellows share the spoils against Atherton Collieries at Cantilever Park with a 1-1 result, as the side sit just outside the play-offs in sixth in the BetVictor Northern Premier Division.

The midfielder tops the top scorer leaderboard for the Yellows, and has had a strong aerial presence for Paul Carden’s side with majority of his goals coming from his head.

“I’m made up. I probably could have got a few more last year, but I missed a few sitters. Some missed opportunities in some games, but when the chances have come this season I’ve took them,” Garrity said.

“Paul [Carden] has played me further forward a few times this season. I think I’ve scored around seven headers, so a lot of them have come from headers. A goal is a goal for me, I’ll take anything.

“Paul and [Mark] Beesley always say to me, get the ball out wide and get inside the box and try and attack the ball. I fancy my chances on most defenders if I get a run on them.”

“Mark is all about movement. Every time he does stuff in training, it’s about movement.

“The same as Paul, we always do a lot of drills that include passing and moving.

“When it comes to this season, it’s like a ball has been a magnet to me when I’m getting in the box, it’s always landing on my head. Paul and Mark always encourage me to get in the box and get into positions inside the box.”

Garrity agreed to a new two-year deal with the Yellows in the summer of 2019, and was a part of the side that defeated both Nantwich Town and South Shield’s in last year’s play-offs, including a brace in the semi-final against the Dabbers.

Warrington sit outside of the play-offs by just a point, and have games in hand over both next-best Stalybridge Celtic and second-placed Lancaster City.

“A few people are panicking but it’s not at that point yet,” said Garrity.

“I want to win every game, especially considering how good we were last year, but we haven’t really hit any good form this year.

“I couldn’t really put down many full 90 minute performance. I thought against Witton we were good, and I thought we were good against Nantwich when we beat them home and away.

“But we haven’t performed much this year and we’re still up there. People are worrying about how far we’ve dropped, but we’re still right in there. We’ve got games in hand on the likes of Lancaster and a few above us, there’s a lot to play for.

“We’re only half way through the season and there’s a long way to go. Everyone knew South Shields were going to be strong considering that they’re full time, so you expect them to be.

“We know ourselves we haven’t been perfect. I thought we deserved to win that game on Saturday. I thought the Bamber Bridge fixture, we were terrible second half so I wouldn’t say we deserved that.

“But Witton and Atherton we should have won. If we win those games, that’s an extra four points on the table. Bamber Bridge, we should have had the game out of sight but we were terrible second half. If you’re South Shields, it’s not a bad point but when you look and consider that they went down to 10-men, you start to think it is a bad point.”

Carden has strengthened his forward options, adding Will Harris on loan from Burnley and Jordan Buckley from FC United of Manchester.

Both players made their debuts over the weekend, with Garrity believing that they will add an attacking threat to the side.

“Realistically, we’ve only had Tony play number nine with Josh being injured,” he said.

“Jordan and Will trained last night with us for the first time and they looked good. They both looked very sharp, so I think they’ll definitely be good additions and a good extra help for Tony.”

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Previewing the upcoming clash against Radcliffe in a battle of sixth versus seventh respectively, he added: “This is a massive game for us.

“We’ve been saying it since Boxing Day, every game we can’t have anything less than a win. We’ve been slightly unlucky in some games, but we definitely need to make sure we get a win.

“They’ve been in decent form. I know they got beat Saturday, but they’ve been on a good run and they’re a good side. It won’t be an easy game and we’ll have to make sure we’re on it.”

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