Supporters could watch live football at Nethermoor for the first time in over six months on Wednesday night and saw Guiseley Academy make excellent progress in the FA Youth Cup with a 5-0 win over Emley.
The chance to see live football again drew over 200 supporters to Nethermoor and Dave Currie’s young protégées played some fine football. After a well contested game Guiseley now face Sheffield FC away in the Third Qualifying Round.
This was very much a new Guiseley side as the FA Youth Cup is an Under-18 competition. This thus excluded many of the players who played for the team which was heading for the title in the newly inaugurated National Academy League U-19 Super League before Covid-19 struck.
The Young Lions set off at a fast pace against a strong tackling side and remained on the front foot throughout although Emley played a full part in the game.
Guiseley opened the scoring in the fourth minute when Darwin King rode a tackle in the penalty area and fired the ball into the far corner of the net.
Ethan Hudson-Parker made his mark on the game with some scintillating runs down the right and he put a ball across the face of the goal but there were no takers. Jake Charles then tested the ‘keeper before Guiseley made it 2-0 in the 22nd minute when lively right-back Josh Calvert netted with a great strike.
The Young Lions extended their lead to 3-0 in the 34th minute when the impressive Hudson-Parker found the net.
In the second-half Guiseley were not tempted to sit on their lead and pressed on with centre-back Harrison Leigh keeping a calm head and putting in some great tackles as Emley tried to get back into the game.
Jnai Trought replaced Haroon Bostan in the 55th minute before Guiseley went close to scoring again. Further substitutions were made with Folefac Nkem replacing Darwin King in the 70th minute and Josh Stones replacing Oli Brown in the 72nd minute.
Hudson-Parker completed a fine performance by him with his second goal when he fired in from a rebound.
The scoring was completed by Jake Charles in the 90th minute to end what was a very encouraging display by the young Guiseley side.
After the game it was announced that 18 year-old ‘keeper Hagie Damba had signed first team forms with the club. He has featured regularly in pre-season alongside Declan Lambton and Brad Wade.
Hagie made 12 appearances for The Academy last season and has impressed joint First Team Managers Russ O’Neill and Marcus Bignot during the warm-up matches for the 20/21 campaign.
Hagie joins Wade, who recently signed on loan from Rochdale, and Lambton in the goalkeeping ranks with Lambton enjoying a youth loan spell at Albion Sports.
Team: 1. Hagie Damba, 2. Josh Calvert, 3. Oliver Reape, 4. Oliver Brown, 5. Harrison Leigh, 6. Chukwudalu Molokwu, 7. Ethan Hudson-Parker (Stones), 8. Lewis Hey, 10. Jake Charles, 11. Haroon Bostan (Trought) and 17. Darwin King (Nkem).
Subs: 9. Jnai Trought, 12. Dexter Ball, 14. Folefac Nkem, 15. Harry Glover, 16. Josh Stones.
