Dave Parker
LIVERSEDGE TOOK home the inaugural Yorkshire Trophy after beating Penistone Church 4-0 in the final last Saturday afternoon at the Yorkshire Payments Stadium before a crowd of 364.
Their goals were scored by John Cyrus after five minutes, Gavin Allott (46), Oliver Fearon (73) and an own goal in the 90th minute. They received the Trophy from Brighouse Town official Chris Lister and his manager Vill Powell.
In the third and fourth placed final which had kicked off at 11.30am in front of 209 spectators, Golcar United defeated Brighouse Town on penalties 4-3 after the sides were level at 3-3 on the whistle at the end of 90 minutes.
Town had come back from 2-0 down with goals for Golcar from Jacob Buchanan and Greg Porter, to take the lead, 3-2 with goals from Harrison Beeden, a Kyro Lawrence own goal and then a stunning goal from Jack Boyle in the 62nd minute. However they couldn’t hold out or capitalise on their lead and Buddy Cox struck home an equaliser for the Huddersfield club in the 82nd minute.
The two week competition to give players some end of season participation after inactivity through the pandemic since December was hailed a success and Liversedge match day secretary Ralph Wainwright, a former employee with Leeds Rhinos, along with his chairman Trevor Best would like to see it run again next year as a pre-season competition.
“It would give those games some meaning and edge to them, and encourage better crowds,” said Wainwright, whose club also have a name to add on to the trophy, the late Simon Emery who passed away in the past 12 months.
Town’s manager Vill Powell, who put a lot of work into getting the competition off the ground, was very pleased with the outcome through attendance figures and the football played by all sides to entertain the spectators.
“It was also a huge financial boost to our club after a very lean period since the curtailment of fixtures back in December,” he added.
Powell has held a behind closed doors trial game this week to look for potential players before he also works with his staff this month of June ahead of the first away pre-season friendly on July 3 at Golcar United to add more strength in depth for the first league game on August 14 and the start of the FA Cup preliminary round ties on August 21.
Town had a groundhopper through for their 4-0 semi-final defeat by Liversdege on the Wednesday night from Accrington and then on Saturday three more from Nuneaton in Warwickshire, Brigg in Lincolnshire and Sheffield. They were delighted to purchase souvenir programmes and also order pin badges, plus enjoying a pie and a pint.
