Some 12 years ago Storthes Hall were winning the Huddersfield FA Challenge Cup for the second successive season, but last week they were giant-killers when they inflicted defeat on Kirkheaton Rovers.

Hall have been competing successfully in the County Amateur League recently, but at the start of the season the only players still registered were the remnants of last season’s second team which itself consisted of young players.

Hall have always used their recruiting talents to pick up lads from Greenhead and Salendine Nook Colleges and these players tend to be in the 17 or 18-year-old age group.

To ensure their name of the club continued, some ex-players came out of retirement and they entered Division Four of the District League.

They have started modestly being in seventh and they had been drawn against the Division Two leaders Kirkheaton who had still to lose.

Included in the Storthes Hall squad were Paul Gilbertson, Rob Morris, Mark Whiteley and Steve Slack who all claim to be the wrong side of 40, or 50 in some cases.

To add spice to the encounter, six of the 13 man squad all live in Kirkheaton.

One of the old-times Paul Gilbertson scored an amazing goal. A free kick was initially cleared by the Rovers defence, but it fell to Gilbertson who volleyed home from 25 yards – the goal was no more than Hall deserved.

This woke Rovers up and they began to dominate but it took them to the middle of the second before Daniel Loryman equalised and from then, it was “back to the walls” for Hall but they managed to keep it at 1-1 until the final whistle and they then kept them out in extra time too.

Hall were once involved in a mammoth penalty shoot-out some years ago, but these penalties were not in the same League as only three of the nine taken were converted.

Hall keeper Danny Kilburn saved two of the five he faced but it was the two scored by cousins Joe and Sam Fox which gave Hall the win and the bragging rights in Kirkheaton village for at least a few days.

There was a tie in the Challenge Trophy which also went to penalties and provided a shock result.

It was Junction Reserves, who are fourth in Reserve Division Three, who beat Shepley Reserves who are eight in Reserve Division One and Junction had to come from two behind on two separate occasions.

Junction trailed 3-1 in normal time and two of the three Shepley goals came from the penalty spot.

However, the club who are only in their third season in the District League fought back to level at the ninety minute mark.

In the first period of extra time, Shepley went two up again with the help of another penalty as Ryan Laffy scored his third spot kick but Junction came back again and for the record their scorers were Danny Murphy(2), Rohail Ullah(2) and Liam Nolan.

There were more successful kicks than at Storthes Hall and it was a save from Junction’s keeper Oliver Watson that meant the penalty scoring finished at 6-5 in Junction’s favour.

As is normal in these early rounds, there are a few District League v County Amateur League encounters.

All the teams in the Premier Division of the County Amateur League had wins. YMCA were made to work by Britannia Sports before winning 3-1 while Golcar were given a fright by Shepley before winning 2-1.

The third team from this division, Lepton had a more comfortable victory over Linthwaite.

Top of Division One in County Amatuer League, Newsome went to Scissett and won 4-1 but the other teams from this division lost to District League sides.

Division Two team Meltham scored twice against Honley without reply and there was also wins from Heywood Irish and Aimbry.

For Aimbry’s manager Ryan Buckley, it was a sweet success.

In the 2011-12 season he was the manager at Dalton Crusaders when they completed the Division Three and Groom Cup double but then he was removed from the position. The Crusaders then joined forces with Moldgreen to become DRAM Community.

There was little between the two sides in the opening 15 minutes but Aimbry took the lead with the help of a DRAM defender.

A long clearance was headed back towards his own goal but it sailed over the keeper and into the net. A free kick from 30 yards by Brandon Smith levelled the tie but Aimbry regained the lead when Morris Simpson spotted Ryan Buckley at the far post and he slotted home.

Player coach Buckley now expected his opposite number Rodney Rowe to ring the changes and so he did with DRAM adopting a more attacking approach which led to an equaliser from Chris Milby.

Then Aimbry’s Aidan Cox and keeper Richard Beattie marshalled their defence well to prevent DRAM from taking the lead as the score remained at 2-2 with 20 minutes to play, but two headers gave victory to the District League Division Two team.

Another assist from man of the match Simpson led to Buckley adding to his tally with a header from close range and then from a corner Cox sealed the win.

Coach Ryan Buckley took over at Aimbry two seasons ago when his predecessor Jason Reid decided to give himself a break after ten years at the club.

But he was missing his football and discovered there was a vacancy at Heywood Irish and that’s where he ended.

Last week they faced Holmfirth Town who finished second in District League’s Division One last season and have moved to the County Amateur League.

The Town “did the double” over Heywood Irish last season and though not exactly taking everything before them in the new surroundings, they have a very respectable won two and drawn four from their six fixtures.

Reid thought his side would be “up against it” but in the end, he felt that they were the better side throughout the game. Jordan Elvidge gave Heywoods the lead but a penalty allowed Neil Robshaw to level matters. Before the break, Heywoods were back in front with a goal from Aaron Murray.

Holmfirth had a height advantage and they were using that to good effect from set pieces but Heywoods managed to ward off that danger and as the midfield trio of Craig Reid, Johnny Higgins and Damien Murray took greater control, another goal was no surprise. It gave from the top scorer Nathan Eastwood with 15 minutes to go which gave his side a 3-1 win.

The league is also making great progress on the refereeing front.

Thanks to the efforts of Huddersfield FA Referres Appointments secretary Ronnie Cushing out of last weekend’s 50 fixtures only three did not have a neutral referee.