West Riding County Cup semi-final: Pontefract Collieries 1 Farsley Celtic 2

HOLDERS Farsley Celtic are waiting to discover their opponents in this season’s West Riding County Cup final after beating Pontefract Collieries in last night’s semi-final.

The Celts will defend their trophy against either Tadcaster Albion or Selby Town, who play their semi-final next Tuesday.

If the Brewers, who have home advantage against their North Yorkshire rivals the Robins, are successful it will be a repeat of last season’s showpiece.

Farsley got off to a quick start at Ponte’s Harratt Nissan Stadium as Nathan Cartman broke the deadlock in the second minute.

Ponte’s former Campion leading scorer Eli Hey levelled the tie midway through the first half but the Celts took a lead into the break after Dan Cockerline put the visitors back in front just minutes before the interval.

The tie remained tight, and Farsley keeper Graeme McKibbon was called on to make some fine saves as the Toolstation Northern Counties East League Premier Division side looked for the equaliser.

Ponte, chasing promotion from their division like the Celts, also had some defending to do in the second half but neither side could produce another goal and the home side were forced to accept an honourable exit from the competition at the hands of a higher-ranking club.

The Celts play in the Evo-Stik League Premier Division.

Ponte’s league rivals Thackley put an enforced ten-day lay-off behind them as they earned a point from a home draw against Worksop Town.

The Tigers had been in the area at the weekend but they also had to settle for a draw against Albion Sports on Saturday.

They must have hoped for a better return at Dennyfield last night as they took a two-goal lead midway through the first half.

Worksop striker Charlie Baird, who had snatched a point against Albion with a stoppage-time equaliser in their 1-1 draw, opened the scoring in the 20th minute, and within two minutes left back Michael Trench had doubled the visitors’ advantage.

Trench then went from hero to zero as he was guilty of a foul six minutes into the second half that resulted in him receiving a red card for denying a goal-scoring opportunity, and Mike Garrod tucked the spot-kick past Tigers’ keeper Callum Fielding.

It was the Dennyboys’ new joint player-manager who secured their point as Garrod and club captain Pat McGuire were placed in charge when the club reluctantly accepted the resignations of Chris Reape and assistant Andy Patterson recently.

Garrod made it 2-2 when he forced the ball over the line from close range following a goalmouth scramble into the first of four minutes of stoppage time.