Yorkshire Amateur: Sole Sowden strike seals Farsley’s fate

The first 45 minutes of this momentous contest between two well-organised and disciplined sides was dominated by league leaders Farsley but, in the end, they failed to benefit from any of the chances created.

The second half was a different story as Drighlington took the lead through top scorer Shane Sowden in the 75th minute. Drig advanced to the semi-finals courtesy of this solitary strike.

In the Premier Division, Alwoodley trounced bottom-of-the-table Wibsey 6-1 in a routine win.

Alwoodley went into the break 4-1 up and completed the second period ‘professionally’.

Steve Dyer, in his first season in the league, struck four times for Alwoodley with Danny Ashton and Alex Baddams netting the other Alwoodley goals.

Grangefield Old Boys took their chance to put pressure on Farsley and Drighlington while they faced off against each other in the cup.

Grangefield came up against relegation-threatened Athletico. From the first whistle to the last, Grangefield were the better side with excellent pass-and-move football which saw them create many chances.

Brandon Baldwin took advantage of the free-flowing football and slotted home to open the scoring. Despite being dominated, Athletico grabbed an equaliser through Adeeb Jawad. But Grangefield snatched their deserved winner thanks to a late James Kemp volley.

After some poor performances and results over the last month or so, Calverley United had the chance to put it right against second-bottom Stanley United.

Calverley edged in front on the 20-minute mark with last season’s top goal scorer, Matthew Wilson, calmly slotting home to make it 1-0.

Calverley doubled their advantage 10 minutes later when captain Ben Cook scored. Stanley levelled after a quick-fire double around the 40-minute mark.

Just before the break, Tom Westerman had a curling effort which found the top corner and gave Calverley a 3-2 half-time lead. Calverley restored their two-goal cushion over Stanley through Ben Cook and gave the Owls a 4-2 lead with 25 minutes to go.

In the 88th minute a Stanley penalty saw the deficit pulled back to only one goal.

But the Owls held out for a much-needed three points and jumped up four places in the league table.

Scorers for Stanley United were Josh Whiteley with two and Ash Downing with a solitary goal.

Visitors Stanningley held Leeds Medics & Dentists for 65 minutes but the superior Medics fitness shone through and Stanningley conceded three goals in quick succession to make the final score 3-0 in the Medics’ favour.

Goal scorers were Jean Marc Ekegue, Colm Hicks and Dave Emms.

The result of the day, however, came in Division One as Amaranth Crossgates put seven past Thornesians in a 7-2 victory.

The goals for Amaranth came from Ash Thompson with a hat-trick, Paul Graham, Mark Whittam, Martin Dixon and Chris Baldwin who all grabbed one apiece.