Richmond Town Academy, Spenni and Unicorn through to Dales Cup second round

It was Dales Cup first round day for Wensleydale Creamery League teams on Saturday.

Richmond Town Academy hosted Leyburn in the in what was the third cup meeting between these sides in the last two seasons.

Both sides had won one of the previous encounters but Academy were keen to get revenge after Leyburn knocked them out of the Medals Shield back in October.

Academy started with the bare 11 available players due to a combination of girlfriend commitments and sore toes which meant starting with only five players of the legal drinking age.

Leyburn took an early lead after some fairly even exchanges throgh Callum Rankine but Academy drew level when big Sean Thompson powered home a header, which looked like it came off his ear, from a Nathan Simpson corner.

The message from the Academy management at half time was to press for goals as they could sense that Leyburn were a long way off the form that saw them beat Mavs two weeks earlier.

A great passing move early in the half saw Sadler put Jordan Forbes through and he pulled the ball back for Donoghue to fire home. Leyburn equalised within five minutes through Rankine but it always seemed like the young side would go on to win.

On 70 minutes Donoghue played a lovely ball through for Lewington who took a heavy touch before dispatching a great left footed effort into the bottom corner.

In their game against Unicorn, Reeth’s Michael Ellis took advantage of a midfield error to open the scoring after 17 minutes.

Standing 15 yards behind the Unicorn defence, after pressing the goalie, he was presented with the ball as a loose pass from the opposition left him with only the keeper to beat, which he did with a composed finish.

Unicorn levelled it up four minutes later though. An initial shot came down off the bar and the loose ball was turned in from close range by Shaun Charlton.

Nine minutes into the second half, a right wing cross evaded Reeth and Unicorn’s Mark Sims nodded in at the far post.

It was almost a repeat ten minutes later as Sims extended the Richmond team’s lead to 3-1. An angled shot by Sims five minutes from time made sure.

Elsewhere in the cup, Spennithorne needed extra time against Carperby to go through to the next round after the scores were 2-2 after the end of 90 minutes.

In the league, goals at the start and end of the game between Colburn and Hawes bookended a match that was largely forgettable.

Neither side got to grips with the wind, and little quality football was to be seen.

Three minutes had passed when a ball reached Craig Teasdale to the left of the goal. His complete mishit shot fell to an ever-alert Luke McCormack who slotted it home.

Then in the 93^rd minute a ball from the back looked to have been dealt with by Hawes defence, but McCormack managed to rob the keeper and shoot home.

There were few other highlights, bar a goal-line clearance from Josh Crisp and an attempted overhead effort from Shane Parkinson.

Colburn were comfortable first half with the wind behind them, but failed to capitalise on numerous good chances.

Colburn’s defence was largely untroubled by Hawes, but the passing was not accurate enough, and too many players were not quite on their game.

Exceptions to this were Colburn’s central defenders, Ashley McInerney and Crisp, who snuffed out any Hawes attack with ease, and set up attacks wherever possible.Hammy Hamilton, town’s manager, was frustrated by this first half display, and urged his side to play the ball to feet in the second half.

After an hour he made three changes, replacing Dean McCormack with Bobby Elliott, Brandon Bishop with Callum Sheridan and Tom Sweeney with Gary Hutchinson. This altered nothing, however.

Results

Dales Shield

Carperby 3-4 Spennithorne (AET)

Reeth 1-4 Unicorn

Richmond Town Academy 3-2 Leyburn

League

Colburn 2-0 Hawes

Fixtures – 16.3.19

Colburn v Carperby

Leyburn v Richmond Mavericks

Richmond Buck v Unicorn

Spennithorne v Catterick Garrison