Goals from Ryan Williams and Jake Lawlor edged the Lions past the Robins and into the West Riding County Cup Semi-Finals at a chilly Nethermoor on Tuesday.
Manager Mark Bower made full use of his first-team squad and also included four Academy players in the sixteen, with Jack Rea the sole survivor from Saturday’s FA Trophy triumph at FC Halifax.
The home side got off to the best possible start after just two minutes, when Ryan Williams was first to react to a corner swung into the six-yard box and he headed past keeper Lee Kelsey.
Josh O’Neill had wasted a good opening shortly after, putting his close- range header over Steve Dickinson’s bar, and Craig Hobson should have doubled the Lions’ advantage but managed to scoop his shot over from all of four yards out.
Jameel Ible also hit a post before Hobson looked to have bundled Louie Swain’s cross over the line only to be denied by the liner, who had spotted his use of the hand in doing so.
Selby should have been level on the restart but Danny Gray put his shot the wrong side of the post with only Dickinson to beat, though Regan Kelly did eventually get the ball in the net for Town’s equaliser on 64 minutes.
The lead was short-lived, however, as Michael Potts’s free kick stung the hands of Kelsey and from the resulting corner several visiting defenders let the ball drift across goal and Lawlor applied the finishing touch at the far post to restore the Lions’ lead on 67 minutes.
The game should have been sewn up shortly afterwards when Williams was tripped by Kelsey, but the keeper made amends by pushing Hobson’s spot kick round the post.
The Lions now await the result of tomorrow evening’s quarter-final between Eccleshill United and Brighouse Town to see who will host them in the Semi-Final, scheduled for early February 2014.
Mark Bower’s views on tonight’s victory
Team:
1-Dickinson
2-Ible
3-Parker (C)
4-Rea (Meynell, 46)
5-Harrison
6-Lawlor 67
7-Williams 2
8-Potts
9-Hobson
10-Swain (Hodgson, 78)
11-Whitfield (Porritt, 63)
12-Meynell
14-Porritt
15-Hodgson
16-Walker
18-Drench
Attendance: 163
