HIGH-FLYING Huddersfield District League Division II outfit Slaithwaite United booked a place in the quarter-finals of the West Riding County FA Challenge Trophy with an emphatic 4-0 victory against Lower Hopton Reserves.

Excessive rain over the past week meant a half hour clean up operation prior to kick-off to enable Slaithwaite's first home fixture in the Trophy to get the go-ahead.

And their efforts paid off. The resulting surface, at Linthwaite Recreation, resembled more an ice rink than a soccer pitch - but the conditions proved to be a clear advantage to Slaithwaite, who are Huddersfield's sole survivors in the Trophy competition.

The hosts dominated possession and created numerous opportunities and, before the visitors got a chance to get a feel of the game, they were a goal down.

A United corner was cleared by Hopton to the right wing and Ryan Eastwoods' attempt to cross the ball back in was blocked, only for it to loop in the air towards the edge of the box where club captain Ashley Scott was on hand to lash a volley into the top left corner.

But the goal had a positive effect on Hopton, who focused firmly and began to play themselves back into the tie.

The last 20 minutes of the first half belonged to the visitors but, with the exception of one great shot from the Hopton striker which was superbly saved by the outstanding Chris Kilner in goal, they failed to create any clear goal-scoring opportunities.

Playing down the hill in the second half Slaithwaite started to boss the game and were rewarded with three second half goals.

A scrappy melee from a United throw-in saw Aaron Lumb in the right place at the right time to increase Slaithwaite's lead.

Richard Turner curled one in from a 25-yard free-kick, and the fourth was a classy effort from Kieran Howes, who picked the ball up on half-way, dribbled towards the keeper before rounding him and buried a left-foot shot from a tight angle.

* Heywood Sports missed the chance of going joint top of Division I of the District League when they were beaten 2-1 at Diggle.

A victory would have taken the champions to 36 points along with leaders Newsome WMC, who were on Barlow Cup duty, but McAllister's lone strike for Sports was not enough as Tomlinson and Hamilton struck for Diggle.

Honley have yet to get off the mark at the bottom of the section but they found Wooldale Wanderers too strong and suffered a 5-1 defeat.

Tom Denton netted a hat trick and others came from Richard Gill and Chris Rowbottom.

Prolific scorer Bert Green netted Honley's consolation.

In Reserve Division III, Paddock climbed into top spot after beating HV Academicals 2-1 at Jagger Lane.

They leap-frogged an inactive Scissett to take the lead by two points, although the latter club have a game in hand.

In Reserve Division IV, Hade Edge gained their first win of the season with a fine 6-0 victory over Mount A.

Andrew Daisy netted a hat trick and others came from Scott Bissett (2) and Dwayne Wrigley.

* West Riding County FA Sunday Cup holders Walkers Arms were prevented from a wasted trip to Rawdon when the match was called off early in the morning.

They will now try again this weekend.