West Yorkshire League: Promoted Newsome targeting top flight at first attempt

The side joined the West Yorkshire League this season and lost only three games during a campaign of dominance.

Joint-manager Richard Evans, however, insists the team are not satisfied yet and want further success.

“We want to go up again next season,” he said.

“Whether we win the title or not is a different story because we know the games will be like playing Otley or Kirk Deighton on a weekly basis, so we know it will be a stern task.

“But if you look at our home form and the amount of goals we scored, we have reason to be confident we can get promoted from Division One.”

Newsome wrapped up the title in impressive fashion, picking up a 6-0 away win at Swillington Saints before beating Kirk Deighton 3-1 at The Westgate Arena. Otley already knew their hopes were over with those results, and perhaps their 6-0 home defeat to Huddersfield YMCA reflected this.

In the Premier Division, Leeds City have done all they can in search for their first Premier Division trophy. They began the week in disappointing fashion after a goalless draw with Robin Hood Athletic, before recovering in their final game of the season to beat Hartshead 4-1.

Leeds are now looking nervously over their shoulders as challengers Beeston St Anthony’s and Carlton Athletic look to snatch the title from them with both having three games still to play. Carlton started the week perfectly as they ran out 7-1 winners over Hunslet, following that up with another empathic win, this time running out 4-1 victors over Field before defeating Sherburn White Rose 5-1. Beeston had a slightly lighter schedule but held their end of the bargain, defeating Knaresborough Town 4-2.

Ilkley Town’s dismal form continued as they suffered a 3-0 loss at Huddersfield Amateur, allowing Horbury Town to jump them into fourth after they picked up a point at Pool in a 2-2 draw. Ilkley know, however, that a point from their remaining games against Beeston and Carlton would see them reclaim fourth spot.

Huddersfield beat Hartshead 1-0, before Hartshead picked up a 1-0 win of their own against Knaresborough. The week would improve for Knaresborough as they recorded a 3-1 win over Pool. Fortunes would also improve for Pool after their 2-1 victory over Sherburn. Field notched up a comfortable 3-1 win over Huddersfield, while Shelley drew 1-1 with Robin Hood to complete a frantic week of Premier Division action.

In Division One, Wyke Wanderers knew that a point against Featherstone Colliery would be enough to earn them a place in the Premier next season, but those plans unravelled quickly after a 3-1 defeat.

Goals from Andrew Burton, Jordan Finch and Kyle Pearson kept Featherstone’s hopes alive of stealing that final promotion spot off Wyke.

Featherstone could have been only one point behind Wyke to end the week, but their surprise 4-2 loss to Boroughbridge ended those hopes.

Whitkirk Wanderers know they are up but didn’t take their foot off the gas, defeating Altofts 3-1.

Another defeatf followed shortly for Altofts as they went down 2-0 at Rothwell.

This was a marked improvement for Rothwell after the 6-1 drubbing they had suffered earlier in the week at Oxenhope Recreation.

That momentum failed to carry over for Oxenhope into the weekend owing to a 3-1 loss to Leeds Modernians, who had been demolished 6-2 by Aberford Albion just days before.

Aberford made it back-to-back wins for the week with a 4-2 triumph over rock-bottom Brighouse Old Boys. Wetherby Athletic defeated Howden Clough 1-0 to complete the action.

WAKEFIELD SATURDAY LEAGUE

THE Wakefield League Premier Division has been hit by two team resignations in the past week, as well as crowning a champion, writes MARK THOMPSON.

Rock Inn beat second-placed Crackenedge to win the league title – their fourth piece of silverware this season – in part helped by the resignations of FC Gascoigne Garforth and Real Moor.

Gascoigne Garforth tendered their resignation following incidents at their game on May 2 while Real Moor had failed to fulfil a fixture since losing in the semi-final of the Jim Callaghan Cup at the end of April.

The league standings have been updated to remove their fixtures from the results, and the removal of the two sides means that Rock Inn now have an unbeaten record and unassailable lead.

The Rock confirmed champion status with Saturday’s 3-2 win over Crackenedge with Stuart Gordon, Liam Kellett, and Josh Prudhoe getting the goals. They finish the season on 34 points, having won 11 and drawn one of their games.

Three teams are still in the hunt for the Division One title after leaders FC Prince lost their final game of the season 2-1 to Durkar.

It means that Snydale Athletic, who beat Ossett Dynamos 3-0, are just a point behind with a game in hand. They lost 3-2 last Wednesday to Ryhill, who themselves are just three points behind FC Prince with two games still to play.