West Yorkshire League: White Rose on the rise under new boss Haley

David Haley has spent two decades as a youth development coach for a host of sides in the West Yorkshire region including Leeds United, Huddersfield Town and Bradford City.

Speaking about his decision to accept the manager’s position at Sherburn, Haley said: “Earlier in the season I was managing Ossett Albion, but due to a mutual agreement stepped down.

“Then a good friend of mine, Nick Peacock, who was at Sherburn, gave me a call and asked if I would like to come and help them get out of the drop zone.

“So far things are going very well. We brought in some players from Leeds West Academy where I coach, so now we have a solid young team who are bringing a different style to Sherburn. After conceding 11 goals in three games we decided to change our formation and hit teams on the counter, and we now find ourselves on a three-match winning run.

“We have a huge game on Wednesday night against Carlton Athletic who are still going for the title, then three against teams around us, so I think six points from our remaining four matches will keep us in the division.”

Sherburn claimed their third consecutive win in style, putting seven past Ilkley in a 7-1 thumping. James Arnold, Arran Hodgson and Daniel Ramaino all netted twice for White Rose, with Jamie Simpson also on target. Ilkley grabbed a consolation goal late on from the spot through Lee Spires, but the hosts were well beaten by a solid Sherburn outfit.

The Premier Division’s top three all took a league break in midweek as they switched their attention to the West Yorkshire League Cup. Their dominance would continue as Leeds City picked up a 3-2 win at Huddersfield Amateur, while Carlton hammered Featherstone Colliery 5-1.

Beeston St Anthony’s recorded a 3-0 win over Robin Hood Athletic to set-up a huge chance for one of these sides to go on to a league and cup double.

Leeds and Huddersfield would meet again at the weekend in the league, but the result was no different, as Leeds coasted to a 5-0 victory with Barrie Frankland claiming a hat-trick while Mitch Cameron and Luke Norman were also on target.

Carlton also picked up three points, after their 5-3 win over Knaresborough Town.

Craig McCall bagged all three for Knaresborough, but braces from Matt Britton and Scott Hargreaves and a Kris Robertshaw goal secured the win for Carlton.

Headingley continue to slip towards the drop zone after a 3-0 loss to Robin Hood. Hartshead are also in great peril, as they lost 6-1 to Hunslet after a Kyle Swithenbank hat-trick with Omri Linfoot, Sydney Santos and Lee Turner stretching the scoreline.

Things didn’t improve for Hartshead on Saturday, as they suffered a 3-2 loss to bottom-of-the-table Pool. Horbury Town and Field met twice in a week for Premier Division action.

Horbury fired the first shot, as goals from Neil Samardzija and Ben Teasdale gave them a 2-1 victory.

The sides couldn’t be separated in round two as Horbury’s Luke Playford and Field’s Nathan Woodward earned a point each for their respective teams. The game ended 1-1.