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Photographs by Daniel Golton
Langwith’s three goal victory over James 3rds turned out to be more important than first thought, with the yellows eventually qualifying for the knockout stages on goals scored, having notched one more than Halifax 3rds.
The first ten minutes were scrappy, with both teams struggling to play the ball along the ground and possession was dominated in the middle of the field. Langwith began take control as the half went on however, Matt Morton commanding their attacks, running down the by-line and picking out Ope Okusanga, who couldn’t control the pass and the ball was cleared by the James defence. Langwith persisted and created the first chance of the game after Campbell drove a free kick into the box, James couldn’t clear the original ball in and it fell to Tom Pickersgill standing by the post who nodded over from close range.
James had a chance to take the lead soon after, against the run of play when Allen found himself with a chance to run through on goal, with two defenders on either side of him, this was a tough ask however and when he failed to shrug the defenders off, he couldn’t get a shot away, having to settle for a corner which was cleared. Okusanga had another chance to take an important lead for Langwith, but the ball fell unkindly landing behind him as he tried to adjust to get a shot in, but managed to win a corner via a James defender. Langwith got the goal they craved just before half-time, Pickersgill this time heading home from close range after James failed to clear the ball in from a corner, goalkeeper Andrew McNally failing to catch the ball the ball leaving Pickersgill able to bundle the ball over the line, Langwith now hoping to put pressure on the other teams hoping to qualify.
The second half began with an earthquake, Matt Morton doubling Langwith’s lead, smashing the ball into the top corner from the edge of the box, calming his sides nerves as a win now looked inevitable. Another parry from McNally gifted Langwith their third, Marcus Campbell’s free kick could only be pushed into the path of Louis Pegg who tapped home to complete an important win for his team.
The result of the group could have been very different however had Boedt converted one of the two chances that fell to him in the closing stages of the match. He was unlucky with the first, running through on goal and finishing calmly, his shot unfortunately hitting the post, while his second fired across the goal with Holtannann just unable to make contact as he ran into the box.
In the end a confident display from Langwith was rewarded with a place in the knockout stages, with Halifax unable to equal them on number of goals scored. Captain Marcus Campbell was very hopeful of leading his side through to what would be for them a precious quarter final place’I think we’d be really unlucky not to qualify, obviously Halifax need a big win here, but really happy with how we played today regardless of whether we get through or not and hopefully I can look forward to us getting James 1sts in the quarter-finals.’