Beeston St. Anthony's 3 v Leeds City 1 - West Yorkshire League - League Cup Final

Wednesday 30th May 2018
West Yorkshire Association Football League
League Cup Final
at the West Riding FA HQ Ground,
Fleet Lane, Woodlesford
Beeston St. Anthony's (2) 3
Steve Crawford 1
Gareth Groves 28
Joe Wood 50
Leeds City (0) 1
James Hochstrasser 85
Admission £4 inc. programme.

Beeston St. Anthony's
Stevie Kerr (C), Ryan Bailey, Dan Daly, Joe Hill, Callum Hill, Lee Turnbull, Matty Waller, Matty Moon, Steve Crawford, Gareth Groves, Joe Wood
Subs - Sean Jeavons, Kingsley Wetherald, Kristen Williams, Sam Morrell, Alex Houghton
Leeds City:
Declan Flowers, Alex McGurk, Luke Norman, Joe Tasker, Ash Walker, Adam Dutson, Sean Fitzpatrick, Mitch Cameron, Mark Ferguson, Mitch Pattisoon, Charlie Lumley
Subs - Steve Tierney, James Hochstrasser, Ryan Morris, Rinor Ejupi, Alasdair Brown

Goals from James Allan, Matt Moon and Matty Waller, helped Beeston to overcome Carlton Athletic 3-2 in their recent closely fought semi final at Altofts Community Centre; while a brace from Mark Ferguson and a further strike by Ash Walker saw Leeds progress past Huddersfield Amateur in the other semi at Knaresborough Town's Manse Lane ground.
And so the scene was set, for another entertaining and well contested cup final, played at the West Riding County FA Headquarters Ground in Woodlesford, on a grey and overcast evening, that was threatening to be so grim weather-wise, it necessitated the floodlights having to be switched on before the 7.30PM start.

Both sides had a good turn out of vociferous fans present, while football purists from all four corners of the Northern Hemisphere, the elders of the ground hopping fraternity and a healthy number of players and officials from other West Yorkshire League clubs swelled the crowd figure well into three figures... though no official announcement was made as to exactly how many people had turned out for this eagerly awaited final between the second and third placed Yorkshire League teams, my powers of guesstimation would probably round it up to approximately two hundred and fifty plus. Certainly the amount of vehicles in the over-spill car park would suggest such an attendance and strangely the ground became more and more densely populated as the night unfolded.

Beeston got off to a flying start on the Woodlesford 3G, when they opened the scoring inside the first minute, when Dan Daly and Joe Wood broke forward on the left and the latter crossed to the back post, where Leeds valiantly tried to clear their lines, but Matty Waller battled for possession and steered the ball to Stevie Crawford who smashed the ball past Declan Flowers.
Despite their early setback Leeds soon found their feet and were almost on level terms nearly straight away, when Sean Fitzpatrick blazed an angled shot across the face of Steve Kerr's goal and wide of the left hand post.
As the action swung from end to end, Waller made good ground to the left hand side of City's area and crossed to Crawford, but Flowers bravely smothered the ball at his feet. Wood's dribbling run through the middle of the Leeds defence was halted when he was tripped, but Waller hooked the resulting free kick over the bar.

Leeds picked up the initiative again and went close when Mitch Cameron's in-swinging delivery was met by Ash Walker, but hhis downward header was saved by Kerr.
Meanwhile, Beeston turned defence into attack, Cameron felled Wood with a clumsy challenge just outside the D. Matty Moon struck the resulting free kick well and though Flowers got both hands behind it, he could only parry the ball towards Waller, who picked out Gareth Groves with a sideways pass back across the face of the Leeds goal, who planted the ball into the back of the Leeds net with his first touch to double the Saints lead.
Mark Ferguson went close but Kerr got down to his left thumping shot past the upright and from Cameron's resulting corner kick, the Beeston area turned into a scene akin to a frantic game of bagatelle, but the Greens stood firm, just about, and cleared their lines.

Cameron, who was instrumental in most of Leeds build up play, curled a cross/shot towards the top corner of Kerr's goal from the left hand side of the area, that the Saints captain initially clawed at, but claimed at the second attempt.
Moon advanced on the Leeds goal, via a solo run through the left channel, but couldn't quite keep his shot down when he got a clear sight of the goal.
With the halfway stage approaching, Alex McGurk put Fitzpatrick through on Kerr's goal with a brace of right wing deliveries, but he nodded the first narrowly wide and was thwarted by the Saints keeper in the second instance. Cameron tried his luck from eighteen yards out, but Joe Hill made a last ditch block at the expense of a corner. On the stroke of half time, Crawford planted a shot wide from fifteen yards... which, if nothing else, kept the game alive as a spectacle after the break.
HT: Saints 2 v City 0

Leeds needed a goal early in the second half, but faced an uphill battle and then a bit, when Beeston went 3-0 up, just five minutes after the restart, after Crawford threaded a precision ball through the middle of the City defence for Wood to run onto at pace; Flowers advanced quickly from his line, but the highly rated Saints number eleven calmly picked his spot and dispatched a low, firmly struck shot into the bottom right hand corner of the goal... it's little wonder that he (Wood) is attracting a whole lot of attention from clubs a few notches higher up the pyramid of football's pecking order.
City now had nothing to lose by piling men forward on the attack and a combination of Cameron and Fitzpatrick, set about trying to undermine the opposition defence in tandem on the left flank, but Beeston were putting up as convincing a defensive rearguard action as I've seen all season.

The ball fell to Ferguson, some twenty yards from Kerr's goal, and he made good of the crowd of players in front of him, by striking the ball through the narrowest of gaps, but though the Saints keeper saw it late, he still managed to pull off a save down to his left.
Beeston's Ryan Bailey was shown a straight red card by the referee, Darius Bradley, who was well placed to make a judgement, even if yours truly thought a yellow would have been sufficient for going into a challenge with his knee up. But like I said, the match official was nearer the incident than me, so I'll shurrup!
It's no exaggeration to say that Beeston's victory, in the grand scheme of things, was built just as much on their unrelenting stubborness in defence, from here on in, as it was the three goal cushion that they had laid down as the foundation of their win.

Fitzpatrick's shot was blocked and the loose ball ran Walker on the right hand edge of the Saints area; he skipped past Daly's challenged and stayed upright despite being clipped, then went to ground under a heavy challenge from (J) Hill a yard from Kerr's goal. If Walker could relive that moment, he would probably go down when Daly caught him, accidental or otherwise, but ultimately ended up empty handed for being a little bit too honest.
(J) Hill was soon in the thick of things again, putting his body-line in the way off Rinor Ejup's goal-bound strike... and when Leeds did find a way through, Cameron's left wing delivery skimmed off the head of Charlie Lumley and went out of harms way for a goal kick.
Beeston sent out the sappers to roll the barb-wire out across no mans land as they dug in and entrenched themselves, while Leeds took stock of the situation and threw everything they had got at the ten man Saints.

McGurk fed the ball forward, picking out Walker's run, and he in turn slipped the ball inside to Fitzpatrick, but Kerr was on hand to salvage the situation as the game went into the final ten minutes.
Even Wood, Beeston's promising attacking wide player, was playing deep now, working his socks off to help keep City at bay.
Two Leeds substitutes combined, but when James Hochstrasser set up a great chance for Ryan Morris, Kerr pulled off another great save and managed to push the ball away from a corner, that Cameron quickly put into the danger zone, but Groves was back in his own area and headed the ball away. Ejupi put on a burst of pace on the right flank, to make himself the space to get a cross in, which Adam Dutson met with a thumping header, but the ball cleared the roof of Kerr's net.

The WYAFL Cup
...it looks just like the FA Cup

With five minutes remaining, City pulled a goal back, when Hochstrasser turned Fitzpatrick's delivery past Kerr from close range.

As stoppage time arrived, Luke Norman forced another stop out of Kerr, while Lumley saw his dipping header drop just over the Saints bar.

Time was running out and with Beeston crowding their area and denying Dutson the opportunity to create anything from nigh on thirty yards out, he opted to unleash a thunderbolt of a shot, that crashed off of the bar... and moments later, Kerr tipped the ball over at full stretch from Hochstrasser's close range angled shot... and as Leeds tried moving into the Saints area from a short corner routine, the final whistle sounded and the big shiny trophy was Beeston's to look after and polish for the next twelve months.

FT: Beeston St. Anthony's 3 v Leeds City 2.

That's a nice bit of shag pile

Congratulations to Beeston St. Anthony's on their win tonight and commiserations to Leeds City who made a proper fight of it in the second half.
Further (and probably more accurate) coverage from tonight's game can be viewed, by clicking here: WE ALL STAND TOGETHER to read Martin Robert's excellent multi-sports blog.