Well it was cup time again down at Ethel’s, so who would the Lions face this time? It seems there are only ever 3 teams in the bag of balls Haxby, Skelton and Acomb Celtic - well it was Skelton this time and we were quietly confident of causing a upset !
The match started well, with both teams having plenty of possession but chances were few and far between until up popped Lion’s top scorer Peter Dransfield to add another goal to his rapidly growing tally; the game didn’t have a chance to settle down with plenty of fouls and free kicks before Skelton eventually equalised just before the break.
Half time arrived just in time for Haxby and the team was able to have a good talk amongst themselves; the verdict? Just to keep going and play the way we were and we would have a good chance, the second half was much the same plenty of effort and commitment but not that many chances for either side. Then suddenly there was Tom Matthews, unmarked in the box to scramble home a second goal, then almost immediately after came the goal of the game, most likely the season, as the lions were awarded a free kick wide out on the left touchline and up stepped Mark Godfrey who unleashed a superbly stunning effort that arrowed into the far top corner, it looked like this was going to be the goal which sent the Lions through and cause a cup upset. Unfortunately a little man dressed in black with a whistle had other ideas, he said there was 5 minutes remaining in the game when he awarded Skelton one of the most amazingly obvious offside goals you will ever see (to the extent that the three offside Skelton players all stopped), then in the last minute up popped a friend of a few of the lions, Jamie "Pidda" Robinson (we’re going to hear about this for a while) to plant a header into the lions net after more poor marking from a corner! so extra time we thought - oh no 8 minutes later (apparently there was only 5 left!!!) the ball fell kindly to Lions old boy Josh Leeming who made no mistake with a calm finish to send the Lions crashing out of the cup in the cruellest of fashions.
So a game that promised so much for us ended with us having nothing, and in the words of Sir Alex Ferguson, “He just wasn’t good enough for this level” - never mind on with our quest for the division 2 title !!
Lions Goals : Dransfield, Matthews, Godfrey - M.O.M : Waddington