Park Life: West Yorkshire rep side back on the road to national glory

The league’s representative side thought their heroic bid for glory in the FA Inter League Cup had been ended when the Spartan South Midlands side were 3-2 winners in February’s semi-final played at Hertford Town FC.

But the Yorkshire side’s suspicions that their victors had played an ineligible player in Nathan ‘De Lick’ Graham proved well founded with the WYL men successful in their appeal and the South Midlands side subsequently thrown out of the competition.

It means the West Yorkshire League men are now through to the national final – where they will play the Teesside League side at a date and venue to be confirmed.

Ironically, Flynn’s side have also benefited from the same ruling that booted them out of the competition four years ago when they too fielded an ineligible player.

Flynn reasoned: “Our thoughts go out to our last opponents Spartan Southern League on their disqualification. Having been disqualified ourselves for the same reason in previous years, we know it’s a real bitter pill to swallow.

“However, we will accept the chance to try again. We were very disappointed with the result and felt we were the better side. We are all delighted we have the chance to cover our League in glory. This has been a great achievement which started last April. We know that Teesside are a very good team and have beaten two or three well-fancied teams on the way to the final, so we are under no illusions of the task in front of us.

“If we win the trophy, we will be the EUFA Regions Cups next year representing England, and we would be up against Russia, Romania and Serbia in our qualifying group. Wouldn’t that be something to get your head round?!”