VALE OF LUNE RUFC (Powderhouse Lane)

WESTMORLAND COUNTY FA SENIOR CUP FINAL, MILNTHORPE CORINTHIANS 6-1 MARSH UNITED, ATTENDANCE: 416

This afternoon I made the pilgrimage to Lancaster for an interesting game at an interesting venue. I certainly wasn't the only groundhopper with the same opinion and there were plenty of familiar faces in amongst the bumper crowd.

The Westmorland FA Senior Cup Final was taking place at Powderhouse Lane, the home of Vale of Lune rugby union club. The Lune is the river than runs through the city and the rugby club is near the border of Lancaster and Morecambe. A chance to watch football at a rugby ground? Yes please!

All good but why is the Westmorland Cup Final being held in another county? Well simply it's because the competition had taken longer to reach its conclusion, due to the enforced Covid break, the regular venue for the showpiece final, Kendal Town, was unavailable. Vale of Lune agreed to host so this is probably a one-off occasion. This decision to go beyond the county line was not without controversy but the the organisation more than justified it. 

The centrepiece of the ground is the main stand, which is an unusual looking structure on the halfway line. There is terracing either side of the stand but the rest of ground is flat standing. There is a raised platform outside the clubhouse behind the goal which, on a baking hot day, was very busy today.

The two finalists compete in different leagues. Milnthorpe Corinthians are members of  the West Lancashire League whilst Marsh United are members of the North Lancashire and District League.

There was an obvious gulf in class between the sides as Milnthorpe comprehensively dispatched Marsh United.

It was a tight opening 20 minutes but once Charlie Morton headed home from a corner to open it was game over. Within five minutes of that opener it was 3-0 to Milnthorpe as Steve Yawson scored a quick brace. A free kick was deflected into his own goal by Jamie Woodruff just before half time, which could have made things interesting, but Milnthorpe's dominance continued in the second half as Morton scored his second and Yawson completed his hat-trick. Aaron Hoyle made in 6-1 with a penalty late on to ensure Corinthians retained the trophy for another year.

You can watch match highlights by clicking here

...and with that another Covid-19 interrupted season ends for me. It has been good to get out and about these last few weeks and watch football at levels which I would not normally consider. That will change going forward. I will return in a few weeks when season 2021/22 is scheduled to kick off competitively in early July. Hopefully that remains so. Until then, stay safe and look after each other.

LEEDS CITY (Adel War Memorial Ground)

YORKSHIRE AMATEUR LEAGUE SUPREME DIVISION, LEEDS CITY 1-8 TOLLER FC, ATTENDANCE: 12 (h/c)

I should have been on a flight to St Petersburg today but instead found myself heading to the outskirts of Leeds. There were few games to choose from this evening but it was the name Leeds City that proved the big draw.

The name of Leeds City is a famous name from the past, the club being the forerunner to the current Leeds United. Founded in 1904, Leeds City were the first professional club in the city and were elected to the Football League in 1905. They remained in Division Two until they were expelled from the League in 1919 due to financial irregularities. The club were paying players during the war, which was prohibited, as the club won wartime honours under the great Herbert Chapman. The club refused to co-operate in the investigation by not handing over any financial records so the Football League expelled them and replaced them with Port Vale (who took over their remaining fixtures as well as their results up to that point).

This Leeds City FC was formed in 2006 as a result of a merger between Abbey Grange Old Boys FC, Adel FC and Leeds City Vixens. These clubs were joined at the same time by two teams from Horsforth St Margaret's FC. Their home ground is the Adel War Memorial Ground and the football pitch is part of a larger complex which hosts cricket, tennis and hockey (all of which were being utilised this evening). The pitch is railed on three sides and there is no furniture to speak of, but as it was a pleasant evening that didn't really matter.

The match was an end of season dead rubber but based on the respective league positions the result turned out to be a bit of a surprise. It was a dominate performance from the visitors as they rattled in eight goals and, it if wasn't for some wayward finishing, it probably could have been more. It never helped the homesters that Toller's first goal came after just 20 seconds. The star of the night was Hassan Khan who bagged himself a hat-trick. The other Toller goals were scored by Mohammed Hassan, Samuel Jordan, Andrew McHugh, Matthew Schofield and Kyle Trenerry. Ethan Arya scored Leeds' consolation goal.

There were a couple of familiar groundhopping faces in the crowd, one who is renowned for making very bad puns. As you can imagine he was in his element with Toller-eight!

Kyle Trenerry fires home Toller's eighth, and final, goal of the evening