The season so far...

With 5 games gone, a quarter of the season completed and a free weekend approaching, it’s time for a look back on how our season has gone so far, and as a club what he can look forward to for the rest of the year.

September: The season got off to a great start with a 6-1 win against local rivals St. Pauls Pilgrims. Although the game lack fluency, it was good see 5 different players chip in goals, and more impressive were debuts from Ant Glass, Nick Eastburn and man of the match Ivan Straw. Our second game was a highly impressive 9-0 rout of new team Opportunity Soccer. Scott Donkin continued his impressive start to the season with 4 goals in his man of the match performance.

October: The start of the YCFL Cup for us this year was a trip to Morley BSC FC, the team that knocked us out at the first elimination round last season, and this again was a challenge just too far far the team. A few defensive mistakes are what cost the team in the end of what was an excellent football match, that demonstrated all the positives of the YCFL on both the quality of football and excellent fair play by both teams. A 5-3 loss in the end was nothing to be ashamed of, and the high standard of football on show that day in fact demonstrates the level of improvement the team has made over the past couple of years.

Our third league of the season saw us host another new team, Sowerby Bridge United. In the end we came away rather disappointed in the 1-1 final result where we enjoyed far more of the possession and chances in the game, but were just unable to find the winning goal. With Division 2 only a few weeks in, this game showed that the title could well be decided in the reverse fixture in February.

November: Goals were definitely not in short supply in our second cup game of the season, this time home to Unity in Mission. Despite going a goal down in the first minute, we quickly bounced back to win the game an astonishing 11-4. There were goals for full-backs on the day Dan Chapman and Ben Telfor, but it was the 3 hattricks by Ali Hogben, Jonny Donkin and first goals for the club Nick Eastburn which did the damage. Hopefully this goalfest will continue throughout the season.

Looking forward, we now have 3 crucial league games at home, a cup game against Division 1 team Normanton, and a tricky away tie against Huddersfield Elim before Christmas. With our fate in both the YCFL Cup and 12 points up for grabs in the league before the winter break, this is a crucial period for the club. If we can carry on the consistency in team and performance over the games, and if we can get to the mid season interval leading YCFL Division 2, then we will be well on our way to gaining the promotion that we are aiming for this year.