And so to a hot and very sunny August Bank Holiday and a Yorkshire derby in the North West Counties Division One North between Emley AFC and Golcar United at the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground on Upper Lane.
The original Emley club, formed in 1903, had been
members of the Yorkshire League and Northern Counties East League, before
winning promotion to the Northern Premier League in 1989. In 2000, new ground
grading regulations introduced by the NPL forced Emley to relocate to Belle Vue
in Wakefield. In 2002 the club was renamed Wakefield & Emley, and when the
reserve team was disbanded in 2005, supporters of the original club decided to
establish a new club based in Emley under the name A.F.C. Emley at the Welfare
Ground. The following year Wakefield & Emley was renamed Wakefield, and
remained in the Northern Premier League until disbanding in 2014.
The new Emley club joined Division One of the West
Yorkshire League for the 2005–06 season. After finishing third in their first
season, they were promoted to Division One of the Northern Counties East
League. In 2015/16 they finished fourth in Division One, qualifying for the
promotion play-offs. After beating Penistone Church 1–0 in the semi-finals,
they lost 4–3 on penalties to Bottesford Town in the final after a 1–1 draw. Striker
Ashley Flynn finished the season with 73 goals, a league record. In 2016/17 the
club finished third, missing out on automatic promotion on goal difference;
they went on to lose 3–1 to Penistone Church in the play-off semi-finals.
In March 2019 it was announced that the club would be
renamed Emley AFC from the 2019–20 season, five years after the original club
was dissolved. The Pewits were also transferred laterally to Division
One North of the North West Counties Football League for the 2019/20
season.
Golcar United FC was established in 1904 and joined
the West Riding County Amateur League in 1934 finishing as runners up. However,
after finishing bottom in the 1937/38 season, United left the league but
rejoined later in 1993.
In the 1930s United regularly played in front of
crowds in excess of 1,000 and even featured on cigarette coupons. They moved to
Longfield Avenue in 1955.
Golcar won the West Riding County Challenge Cup in
2000–01, and were Premier Division runners up in 2003–04. The following season
saw them win the league title. They were runners up in 2014–15, and champions
in 2017–18. United retained the league and cup double last season
with twenty wins and one draw from 22 matches in the league, and were promoted
to Division One North of the NWCFL. United thereby became the last ever
champions of the now defunct West Riding County Amateur League - a league that
started last year with the bare minimum of 14 clubs but following the
demise of AFC Bingley and DRAM Community finished with 12.
A familiar route, past Serendipitea and Edibell, then
ELCTRICALS. TOILETORIES. and the M60 and an abundance of ridiculous
numberplates: SP1 8OAT, M4GYK, JD 15 BOS (pathetic and BOS = Bag of Sh*te) and
a Ford Transit with Van Solo painted above the driver's seat....
Over Saddleworth Moor, Rakehead Viaduct, Windy Hill
and the M62 Summit. Then Sammonden Reservoir, Rainbow Bridge and Stott Hall
Farm, bisecting the two carriageways.
Off at junction 23 and into
Huddersfield, roadworks at Salendine Nook, then Electric Beach tanning centre,
the Petanque Club and Mad Nev's. Onto Wakefield Road, through Fenay
Bridge, past the Tolson Museum, beyond Lepton Highlanders Sports Club and then
right through Emley Moor, Limelight Bride and the TV transmission mast
(since 1971) dominating the landscape and into the village. Not much to
the village of Emley, just the White Horse pub and a newsagents and then a
white bollard signalling the welfare club and the Fantastic Media Welfare
Ground - plenty of parking for a huge crowd of 544, comfortably the best in the
entire league this afternoon.
£5 in and inside to my right is the Richard Hirst Stand, covered terracing with a backdrop of housing and the TV mast. To my left is the main grandstand including bar, Dugout Diner and the 1903 Platinum Suite Hospitality Lounge. Up top is the Warburton End - a covered walkway that ends abruptly with the adjoining cricket pitch.
The Pewits are in claret and blue, keeper George Clarke in all orange, and Golcar in their famous green and black stripes and shotstopper Harry Stead in slate grey. A young referee, younger assistant and a very short and stout linesman officiate.
The first chance arises in the fifth minute with Emley's portly striker Rob Bordman outmuscling his marker to go one on one with Stead - he shoots straight at his legs. Barely a minute later Golcar win a free kick which is half cleared and Alex Hallam's sumptuous half volley into the top right corner, past an unsighted Clarke, gives United the lead.
Thereafter it's all Pewits with Bordman having three efforts, Stead saving from Jimmy Eyles and Conor Glavin and Andrew McManus seeing his shot cleared off the line. Five minutes before half time Eyles says something to the referee and is cautioned for dissent and consequently sin binned. Golcar take immediate advantage of Emley's temporary reduction to ten men with Nathan Tayo scoring, from almost on the line, from a corner.
2-0 to the visitors at the break, sunbathing on the pitch, impromptu football matches on the cricket pitch (doesn't go down well !!) and a couple of deckchairs on the outfield.... The teams re-emerge after the interval, a solitary cry of 'Come on Pewits' and an odd chant of 'Meat Pie, Sausage Roll, Come on Emley, Give Us A Goal'. This prompts huge micky taking given the rotundity of the singer....
Five minutes into the second period, and from a set piece, Gregg Porter shins in a third for United - Clarke diving over the ball and then fumbling into the corner. A certain sense of deja vu afterwards as Emley dominate but fail to score - a combination of bad luck, stoic defending and fine goalkeeping thwarting them.
Five minutes from the end Golcar counterattack and the move ends with sub Frasier Beckett calmly pacing the ball into the bottom corner to make it 4-0. Shortly after Pewits' sub Danny Farrar strikes the bar - all too much for the Emley cameraman who starts walking back to the stand.....
He has to beat a hasty retreat however as the Pewits are awarded a penalty in the final minute, and Bordman sends Stead the wrong way; 'Tucked away like a Fray Bentos' is the 'considered' opinion of the Golcar contingent, referring once more to Bordman's weight.
The referee chooses to play nine
minutes of stoppage time during which Emley have a goal disallowed for offside
and McManus hits the post; United's Jon Norris narrowly stabs wide at the other
end but 4 goals from 5 attempts, as opposed to a penalty from 15 shots for the
Pewits, sums up Golcar's 4-1 derby victory.
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