Lepton Highlanders are celebrating winning the West Riding County FA Under 12 Shield.
Disappointed by losing 2-0 to Westend in the RCD Junior League, they made amends in superb style by beating Springhead 2-0 in the county showpiece.
Ben Carrington and Jack Hodgkinson grabbed a goal each to give the Highlanders their first ever County Cup success.
Lepton secretary Steve Haikings was delighted with the result saying: “We’ve been waiting 20 years for this. It’s a great day for the club.”
In the Under 12 Division I, Lepton went down in one of the most important matches of the season at Westend.
With the League Cup already in the trophy cabinet, a win for Westend makes them favourites for the title as well.
Alfie Smalley sent a warning shot across the Westend goal as Lepton set the early pace, but Westend soon gathered themselves and, with some nice movement from Marcus Mangoro and Alfie Westwood, set up Jarell Quashie for a powerful shot that skimmed the top of the bar.
There was little between the two sides as play moved quickly from end to end but, although Westend looked the more dangerous in front of goal, Adam Maywand, Carrington and Jacob Senior looked solid in the Lepton defence.
Westend continued to threaten and Ozzy Iyekekpolor looked certain to open the scoring from six yards, only to be denied by a superb last-ditch Joe Morgan tackle.
The half time break brought a small change of fortune for Lepton as Ross Woods and Morgan Tankard began to get the upper hand in midfield which, in turn, allowed the ever-dangerous Smalley to fire in several shots on goal but, despite the pressure, keeper Tom Haseldine showed safe hands on the occasions when Lepton broke through Westend’s disciplined back line of Callum Durrans, Kye Cockburn, Finley Langton and Tom Haseldine.
Both sides had given everything but, despite the attacking play, both defences were equal to the challenge and with just 10 minutes remaining, the possibility that the game might end goalless was getting closer until Langton’s run on the right was brought to an end by a mis-timed challenge and left the referee with little choice but to award a penalty.
Harry Scott stepped up to send keeper Tom Gledhill the wrong way and give the home side a vital advantage.
With little time left to turn the game around, Lepton pushed more players forward in search of an equaliser and Westend were happy to exploit the extra space.
Quashie saw his shot rebound from the woodwork as Westend tried to settle the issue and Gledhill made a terrific double save to deny the home side, but the keeper was helpless to stop a third shot from Scott finding the roof of the net to make it 2-0.
With six games still to play, Westend cannot be complacent, but they would have to work hard to throw away the title now.
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