WEST Bowling will meet Thornbury Celtic in the final of the Bradford Sunday Alliance League's GOALS Senior League Cup at Manningham Mills' AA Van Hire Stadium on Sunday, May 1 (2pm).

Both semi-finals at Rawdon Meadows were exciting, with Thornbury winning a penalty shoot-out 4-3 against Buttershaw Celtic after the teams had earlier shared four goals in open play.

Buttershaw took the lead with an Andrew Tasker penalty but Thornbury hit back to lead 2-1 with a rocket strike from Robert Macdonald and a goal by Hasan Mahmood.

However, Jamie Brennan equalised to send the match to penalties – not good news for Buttershaw, who had already gone out of a cup on a shoot-out this season.

The other semi-final was so tight in the first half that it also had a chance of going to penalties.

After 30 minutes, holders White Eagles took the lead when a long through-ball put Marcus Edwards in the clear and he beat the keeper with ease.

But three minutes before the break, a clearance from Bowling keeper Ashley Onitiri found Chris Wood with only keeper Andy Smith to beat and he also scored with ease.

Both keepers excelled at the start of the second half but on the hour, after a scramble in the Bowling six-yard box, Nathan Woodward scrambled the ball home to give Eagles a deserved 2-1 lead.

However, with eight minutes to go, a superb left-footed cross by Joe Jagger found Wood, who beat Smith with a diving header.

The match looked to be heading towards spot-kicks but Wood had other ideas and outstripped the Eagles defence before chipping the ball over the advancing Smith to book Bowling a final birth, although Eagles hit the woodwork late on.

The first of the finalists in the GOALS Amateur Cup are also known as Salts, from Division 2B, defeated Rose & Crown of Division 3A 5-0 at Salts Sports Ground.

Salts will now face either Eccleshill or Junction Wyke, who play at Rawdon Meadows this Sunday.

A brace from Ryan Whitfield and one goal each by Danny Braithwaite, Blakey Rowbotham and Adam Hartley booked the higher-graded side a place in the showpiece match.

In league action, Thornton United Reserves had a setback to their Division 1A promotion hopes when Eccleshill completed the double over them, winning 3-2.

Danny Firth's 25-yarder gave Eccleshill the lead after three minutes and Mathew Holmes tapped in a second. The goal of the match, however, was Mathew Hannan's, which made it 3-0, although United then pulled two back.

In Division 1B, Lyceum leapfrogged opponents Great Northern into third place by winning 3-1, the strikes coming from Benj Bateman, Glynn Beale and substitute Ravinder Singh.

* Holders West Bowling and Alliance Premier Division rivals Thornbury Celtic meet in a Bradford & District FA Sunday Senior Cup semi-final at Eccleshill United tonight (7.30). If the scores are level at the end of 90 minutes, the match will go to penalties.