Yorkshire 1 Isle of Man 1: Coduri writes himself into White Rose folklore with equaliser

The match, watched by a crowd of around 500 at the home of Hemsworth Miners’ Welfare FC, and recognised by CONIFA, a federation for teams from “nations, de-facto nations, regions, minority peoples and sports-isolated territories”, ended 1-1 after Furo Davies had scored earlier for the visitors.

While some had mocked the ambitions of Yorkshire to enter the international stage, there was no doubting the enthusiasm of the boisterous crowd nor the unpaid players, plucked entirely from local non-league outfits, including Coduri, who admitted the chance to claim the history-making opener had played on his mind.

“When the opportunity to play for Yorkshire came up I jumped at the chance,” said Coduri. “The lads had all been talking about who might get that first goal, and nothing has made me prouder than to take that opportunity.”

Collectors clamoured for the historic match programme, of which only 200 were printed, and in which Yorkshire chairman Phil Hegarty wrote: “I always knew we’d reach the destination – Yorkshire has a powerful brand – but just never dreamed it would happen so soon.”

Seon Ripley had missed the first chance to make an historic mark for Yorkshire when his early first-half penalty was saved by Isle of Man goalkeeper Dean Kearns.

Davies’ crashing opener early in the second period looked set to earn the Manxmen – one of the founding members of the burgeoning CONIFA movement – victory until Coduri raced onto a fine through-ball from Yorkshire captain Pat McGuire.

Yorkshire will host a six-team tournament in May, including Tibet and the Chagos Islands.

And Hegarty is looking at expanding the squad’s player pool: “We are going to keep playing games and get ourselves high enough up the CONIFA rankings to hopefully get us into the European Championships next year, and the World Cup the year after that.

“At the moment our squad consists of players who have been born in Yorkshire but we are looking at a grandfather clause, as well as a clause that allows people who have been here for a certain period of time to also be considered.”