A Valentine's Day football match was cancelled in the name of love.

Liversedge FC manager Eugene Lacy was stood up by his players who pulled out of the Northern Counties East League Cup quarter-final because they had other match-making in mind.

The club were due to play Parkgate in the quarter-finals of the competition last night but had to postpone the game until tonight because the love-struck players were busy romancing their other halves.

Mr Lacy said: "I have never heard anything like it. It wouldn't have happened in my day but they are all young lads. I started asking around who would be available last week and I got one or two who wouldn't commit themselves. Obviously it's an important match and we wanted our strongest side."

Mr Lacy then had no choice but to try to sweet-talk their opponents into agreeing another date.

"They said 'Yes' straight off so I don't know if they were having the same problems, it makes you wonder," he said.

Mr Lacy, who played and managed at Farsley Celtic for 20 years before moving to Liversedge four years ago, said he hoped his players would save some of their energy for the rearranged quarter-final.

"I didn't put any bans on them that would spoil their Valentine's night but I hope they won't have had too late a night!" he said.

Commercial manager Mark Brier said: "We've had a few chuckles about it. It's the first time I've ever known anything like this to happen in the club's history.

"We can be a rowdy bunch but obviously we're also a set of smooth-talkers!"

The semi-professional club, founded in 1911, had a romance of a different kind last year with a great FA Cup run.

They almost made the first round proper through the qualifying rounds and managed to win £16,000 prize money which was laid down as a deposit to level their sloping pitch.

"We won more games in the FA Cup than Manchester United did," said Mr Brier. "It was a different kind of romance."