HARROGATE Railway continued their incredible cup form last night as they came from 3-0 down to beat Arnold Town 6-3 in the Northern Counties East League Cup second round.

Rail had poor preparation for the game - they got stuck in traffic and arrived late with the bare 11 players - and, with some players rested and boss Paul Marshall picking a team with four strikers, were 3-0 down in 20 minutes.

But a change of formation saw Steve Davey (2) and Ian Hart level it before the break and the duo completed hat-tricks in the second half.

Arnold were disappointing but Marshall was still delighted to win. "We haven't lost a single cup game all season, which is incredible," he said.

"Ian Hart has been a sub a lot recently but he's responded with a good hat-trick, and generally once we got going we were too good for them."

Pickering Town saw off Tadcaster Albion 4-0 in their replayed derby cup game.

The original tie was abandoned after half an hour due to waterlogging with the score at 0-0, but last night Pikes hit two goals within eight minutes to set them on their way.

The third came towards the end of the first half and, although Taddy came back into it after the break, the Pikes hit a fourth. Ryan Crawford, Luke Ibbetson (2) and Adam Wash netted.

Pikes boss Steve Brown said: "In the first half we played as well as we have done all season. Tadcaster made it tighter in the second half but we finished strongly which pleased me."

Selby Town's tie with Armthorpe Welfare was again postponed with parts of the Flaxley Road pitch still waterlogged.

Harrogate Town bounced back from their FA Cup disappointment by thrashing Bishop Auckland 4-0 in the UniBond League Cup second round.

All the goals came in the first half, from Dylan Kerr, Colin Hun-ter (2) and Clayton Donaldson.

Updated: 12:16 Wednesday, November 20, 2002