BEN CHARLESWORTH was the FA Cup hero as Brighouse Town came back from 2-0 down to beat Silsden 3-2 to create a piece of club history.
Charlesworth, the club’s longest-serving player, struck the 85th-minute winner to cap a brilliant second half comeback.
It was the club’s first-ever FA Cup victory in only the third time they have entered the competition.
Brighouse were 2-0 down at half-time in the extra preliminary round on Saturday but goals from Tom Matthews (penalty), Leon Henry and Charlesworth turned the result around.
The victory secured the club £1,000 in prizemoney and set up a preliminary round tie against Eccleshill United on August 25.
Brighouse seemed set for defeat when Mick Garrod and Joe Gaughan had them reeling at the break.
But the visitors grabbed a lifeline within a minute of the re-start through Matthews’ spotkick after Ernest Boafa was pulled back.
Brighouse kept up the pressure but had to wait until eight minutes from time to level the scores, Henry firing home from the edge of the box.
Charlesworth then pounced for the winner to write himself into club history.
Meanwhile, FC Halifax Town striker Lee Gregory bagged a hat trick as the Shaymen won 3-2 at North Ferriby on Saturday.
That made it seven wins from eight pre-season matches but boss Neil Aspin was still looking for improvements ahead of the season opener at Bishop Stortford on Saturday.
Aspin said: “I’m looking forward to the season now but we need to improve.
“I’d love to have those seven wins in the first eight games of the season.”
Halifax RLFC kept up the pressure on Co-operative Championship leaders Featherstone with a 44-12 win over York City Knights at The Shay yesterday.
