Hammad Ali is hero of the hour as Wakefield Athletic win dramatic Seymour Memorial Trophy tie against Graziers

The thrilling game had everything, including Athletic having to play three different goalkeepers and coming up with a thunderbolt of a strike for the winning goal in final minute.

Hero of the hour was striker Hammad Ali who hit a winning goal of stunning quality in the 90th minute from 30 yards out to deny the visitors the extra-time their second-half comeback merited.

Athletic made a fast start to take the lead in the first five minutes as Raymond Cheng scored with a powerful low drive from 25 yards out.

The rearguard of Logan Owen-Williams, Joe Dack, Josh Harrison and Bartosz Lewandowski limited the chances for the visitors as the hosts looked to threaten again. Kane Whitaker ran through on goal and scored with a delicate lob over the goalkeeper from distance to double his side’s tally in the 35th minute.

Two minutes later it was 3-0 as Whitaker arrowed another effort into the top corner after winger Kieran Young provided the assist following good work by Gavin Pearson and Liam Norbury.

Whitaker then came within a whisker of his hat-trick when hitting the woodwork after skipping past his two markers.

Josh Harrison also saw an effort well saved by Jordan Ripley.

With a three-goal half-time lead intact, Athletic replaced goalkeeper Logan-Williams with Steve Scott who found his debut a tough baptism as he conceded twice inside the opening five minutes following the restart.

A headed goal in the 46th minute at the back post by Chris Wilde from a corner was unchallenged and set the momentum with his team. The second goal shellshocked the hosts as immediately winger Amir Heidari fired in a low drive.

Only a great block from Raymond Cheng on the line prevented Graziers from equalising.

But they eventually found an equaliser in the 68th minute as Mehr Hussain took advantage of a questionable offside call going in his side’s favour to score on the rebound after Scott initially saved.

Athletic were in danger of conceding again as Hussain found himself through on goal and hit the woodwork with the intervention from the recovering Cheng preventing a clear goalscoring opportunity.

This close shave proved to be a turning point as Athletic retaliated and Lewandowski was unlucky to steer his header just over.

The hosts were then forced to replace debutant goalkeeper Scott following an injury. With this cup competition not adopting the roll-on, roll-off substitutions, the hosts were forced to play central defender Lewandowski in goal – the hosts’ third goalkeeper of the match in play.

However, Athletic's new found wave was in full flow with them finding the momentum with Hammad Ali surging round only to be brought down inside the area to earn his side a spot kick.

The resulting spot kick taken by Whitaker was well saved by goalkeeper Jordan Ripley and Graziers cleared their lines.

Stand-in goalkeeper Lewandowski foiled the visitors’ attack before releasing Whitaker who interchanged passes with the man of the moment Ali who created space for himself away from his marker before finding the winner with the goal of the game – a beautiful curling effort into the top corner with visiting goalkeeper Ripley helpless.

The Howdens man of the match award was shared by Cheng, Ali and Lewandowski.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Wakefield Athletic A also made it through in the Setmour Memorial Trophy when they won 5-2 at Hemsworth MW on the deluxe playing surface at the Just Football MDC Stadium.

Rare goals from midfielder Craig Holdsworth saw him hit a perfect hat-trick with his left foot, right foot and header in Athletic’s victory.

Hemsworth started the game brightly and took the lead in the opening 10 minutes when Will Rushforth in the Athletic goal thought a speculative effort was going wide only to be left red faced when it crept in at the far post.

This spurred Athletic into action and Craig Holdsworth and Dom Taylor started to enjoy some freedom on the flanks.

Ash Downing came close twice while Taylor was unfortunate not to level things up when his wicked left foot effort struck the post.

With both teams proving to be better going forward than defending, an open-ended half saw both teams spurn great chances before Taylor went on a trademark cannonball run, beating two players before poking the ball beyond the on-rushing keeper to level the scores at 1-1.

Dalton Holford missed an open net with a timid effort and it was 1-1 at half-time.

Athletic stepped up the intensity at the start of the second half and deservedly took the lead when David Mitchell scored a fine free-kick to make it 2-1.

Hemsworth were rattled and they did themselves no favours when some poor challenges started creeping in and they were reduced to 10 men when one of their players was sin-binned for abusive language towards the referee but then failed to curtail his attitude and saw his sin-bin upgraded to a red card by the merry whistle blower.

Hemsworth were starting to tire and Taylor and Holdsworth were both proving too much to handle. They combined to great effect with Taylor firing a low cross across the box and a flying Holdsworth beating his marker at the back post to make it 3-1.

Hemsworth managed to pull one back when Athletic failed to deal with a delivery into the box and their centre-forward slotted home.

But it was 4-2 when Lee Mulligan’s sublime ball to the back post saw Holdsworth head home his second.

When Taylor was then brought down for a stonewall penalty captain Dalton Holford kindly gave the ball to Holdsworth who placed a well struck penalty past the keeper to complete his perfect hat-trick.

The On Track Coffee man of the match award was shared by Mulligan, Taylor and Holdsworth.

It felt like two points lost for Wakefield Athletic B as they were left to rue more than a dozen missed chances in their 3-3 draw at home to Hanging Heaton FC in their Wakefield Sunday Championship One game..

Despite carving out four clear chances early in the match, Athletic went 1-0 down after 20 minutes, following some poor positional play saw Lee Gregory on target with a headed goal.

Attacking midfielder Matty Wootton, who was to net his first hat-trick for the club, scored from close range on the half hour mark before going on to squeeze a header past the keeper, shortly before half time to give his side a 2-1 lead.

The visitors grabbed another goal on the 53rd minute through Umar Mayat, to level up proceedings, before Wootton hit a long-range effort into the bottom corner from 20 yards to nudge Athletic into a 3-2 lead.

Athletic had a goal disallowed and hit the woodwork twice in the last 15 minutes, but Heaton grabbed a third in the 73rd minute through Jack Flanagan to take a point.

The Waite man of the match award was shared by Wootton, skipper Andrew Jackson and centre-back Josh Hemmingway.