Junior Football: Blown-away Blues crushed by Crusaders

The land-slide victory made it six wins out of six in Division B of the Harrogate & District Junior League.

In a superb display of football in the howling wind and rain, strikers Faisal Sheikh and Paddy McGill scored five apiece, with Rinor Ejupi weighing in with a hat-trick Eliels Anku and Lewys Cave completed the scoring with James Mellor, Frankie Gibson, Ellis Redfearn, Matty Robinson, Brad Dobson, Neel Chavda and Hakkinen Anani also excelling throughout.

On the junior girls’ football front, two-year-old George Kennedy proved a lucky first mascot for Brighouse Juniors Under-16s who eventually saw off visiting Wigton Moor Under-16s 6-2 in the West Riding Girls League.

Shots rained in on the Wigton keeper as Emily Lovett, Jordyn Chasiak-Pratt, Tiegan Rowley and Phoebe Durkin had great chances only to find the shot stopper put in a string of athletic saves. Wigton grew into the game and opened the scoring in the 25th minute with the visitors 1-0 up at the break.

But player-of-the match Grace Acton was in majestic form after the break and scored her first goal three minutes after the restart with a thunderous 25 yard strike. Acton went on to complete a memorable hat trick with Chasiak-Pratt adding two, making it six goals in her last four games, while Tiegan Rowley completed the scoring.

Elsewhere, a brilliant last-ditch tackle from Harry Sykes helped earn Leeds City Boys Under-14s a 3-2 victory over a Washington/Chester-le-Street side who were Saturday morning’s visitors to Wetherby.

The visitors were on top early on and raced into an early 2-0 lead but Leeds had their chances at the other end with Lewis Branton and Kian Linley having efforts saved.

Gradually, the Whites midfield were getting more into the game with Kyran Sharlotte, Matty Webb and Owen Hindley showing up well before the latter went off. Leeds trailed 2-0 at the break but from the start of the second-half, the Whites attacked with the elements in their favour although Washington were still playing neat football.

Eventually, pressure told as a corner was powered into the net at the far post by Sharlotte. In a couple of rare attacks by the opposition, Leon Hepple made two good saves.

The Washington keeper was also busy but could do nothing as Leeds equalised with a carbon-copy of the first goal, again from Sharlotte. Leeds looked more likely to get the winner and did so with a superb free-kick from wide out by Branton that gave the keeper no chance. The Whites looked reasonably comfortable until the last minute when a breakaway looked odds-on to produce an equaliser and only a brilliant last-ditch tackle from Sykes prevented a leveller.