CRAVEN FA MORRISON CUP

Barnoldswick Town (EL)3

AFC Barnoldswick 3

Barnoldswick Town won 3-0 on penalties

BARNOLDSWICK Town's East Lancashire side continued its defence of the Morrison Cup by beating AFC Barnoldswick in a penalty shoot-out in a semi-final match at Silentnight Stadium on Saturday.

It was the visitors who took the lead after four minutes following some sloppy defensive work, Callum Uttley latching onto the ball midway into the Town half before sliding the ball past Adam Wormwell in the Town goal.

Town quickly got in to their stride with some attractive approach play.

There was no real penetration though and the frustration was clear as half-time approached with the home side still a goal behind.

Wormwell had also prevented the visitors taking a two-goal lead on 25 minutes when he somehow clawed a goalbound effort out of the top corner.

Jordan Slade finally got his team back into the game on 44 minutes following some excellent approach work by the irrepressible Bailey Coates, who had an outstanding game.

Town started to dominate proceedings in the second half and raced in to a 3-1 lead with two goals from Coates on 52 and 70 minutes.

His first followed a superb driving run from the powerful James Butler and the second was a smart follow-up to Slade’s penalty miss, Chris Wood in the AFC Barlick goal making the initial save.

The penalty was given when Butler was upended following another superb foray in to the opposition's 18-yard box.

Town were cruising at this point and more goals looked likely for the home side.

But the plucky AFC Barnoldswick team came back at the cup holders and totally outplayed them for the last 15 minutes, drawing the scores level through goals by Wissam Badri on 86 minutes and another from Uttley two minutes into injury time, thus taking the match to penalties.

Town prevailed in the penalty shoot-out 3-0, and Wormwell made a superb save to win the tie.

Credit to both of these Barnoldswick teams for playing in the right spirit and putting on an exciting spectacle for the large crowd.

The Morrison Cup final will be played at Settle and will feature Town matching up against Ingleton, who had beaten Cononley 2-1 last week.

Town’s next game is at home to Langho this Saturday. Kick-off is 2.15pm.

JOHN HEATON

John Heaton

Secretary