Wakefield Athletic's late fightback earns place in Premiership One League Cup semi-finals

Heroes of the hour were David Mitchell with a late equaliser and captain Dalton Holford who hit the winning goal.

Although Athletic were due to play away, some last-minute rearrangements meant the game was to be played, much closer to home than Mirfield, on the Stanley Royd pitch.

Having had 18 players available last week, it was back to reality this week for Athletic with only 13 available.

A recalled Will Rushforth between the sticks meant that Lee "Radebe" Mulligan could move back to his preferred position of centre-back to help steady the back line of Athletic

After the Remembrance Day minute silence was well observed by all in attendance, Athletic started on the front foot and looked to utilise Dom Taylor early on.

Unfortunately, he was not at his best and when put through on goal his effort was well saved by the FC Savs keeper.

Within 10 seconds of this chance, Savs went up the other end, beat the offside trap and Charlie Smith produced a great finish to put them ahead.

Rather peculiarly for Sunday league football, Savs then tried to hold onto their 1-0 lead for the next 80 minutes.

Athletic were growing frustrated as their opponents showed some disciplined and organised defensive work and even when Jacob Marsh hit a fantastic volley from 18 yards out, the Savs keeper made another fine save.

Savs started the second half as they finished the first, camped in their own half and Athletic were starting to think it was not going to be their day as chances came and went for Mitchell, Holford and Dean Normington with a combination of poor finishing and further good goalkeeping keeping Athletic out.

It took until the 80th minute for Athletic to get the reward their performance deserved when a corner was wickedly whipped into the far post by Craig Holdsworth and, in what seemed to happen in slow motion, 5ft 6in David Mitchell leapt about 8ft into the air to power an unstoppable header into the roof of the net to level the scores.

With the threat of penalties looming, Athletic were not prepared to let the game go to that far and their hard work paid off again when Joe Scargill produced a fine flick on at the near post for Dalton Holford to channel his inner Geoff Horsfield to out muscle his opposite number and bundle the ball home at the far post to make the score 2-1 to Athletic.

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

Quadruple winners AFC Royal showed their pedigree with another free-scoring performance to reach another semi-final with a 5-1 away win against Wakefield Athletic in the Premiership One League Cup.

Athletic found themselves two down in the first five minutes as their rearguard was unable to deal with the pace and physicality of the visitors.

Both their goals came in similar fashion with leading marksman Adrian Parker and Aiden Davies taking long balls down to score.

The shellshocked hosts responded with good play from Kieran Young and Raymond Cheng, with the latter curving his pass to forward Danny Young who tried to round the on-rushing goalkeeper but saw the man with the gloves smother well.

Danny Young and Hammad Ali had shots blocked and a long-range effort from Liam Norbury elevated hopes of a comeback. Cheng was the next to test the goalkeeper as he skipped past two midfielders driving forward.

A goal did eventually come after good interchange between Liam Norbury, Cheng and Kieran Young, with the latter’s teasing cross into the box being turned into his own net by a Royal defender.

An uplift for the hosts was to be shortlived as Royal restored their two-goal margin on the stroke of half-time through a Jacob Toomer header when he was unchallenged following a corner.

The second half saw the hosts on the attack as a lovely take down from Leam Killey allowed Riyadul Islam to arrow a cross into the box to Kieran Young only for his effort to be blocked on the line.

The counter-attack was always a threat and saw Royal benefiting as a penetrative through pass saw Toomer scoring from an acute angle.

A free-kick on the edge of the box won by Usman Mahmood was struck narrowly over by Hammad Ali. The latter was in the action again as another well worked chance created by Rayhaan Pervias this time saw Ali unable to hit the target.

The clinical visiting side benefited from a debatable offside call in the dying minutes as Connor Evans made it 5-1.

The Howdens man of the match award was shared by Norbury, Logan Owen-Williams and Cheng.

A goal in each half from vice-captain Will Marshall helped Wakefield Athletic B record a resounding 4-1 Championship One League Cup victory at home to Mirfield Parish – and they will now meet Great Preston in the quarter-finals.

Athletic dominated early possession and went ahead courtesy of a cool penalty from midfielder Kieran Noon, was awarded after his brother, Josh, was felled in the box following a surging run.

In the 25th minute, Athletic doubled their lead with midfielder Marshall firing home a long-range effort.

Marshall scored again 15 minutes into the second half with another typical long drive from 18 yards out into the bottom corner of the net.

This came shortly after substitute James Boryn had a fantastic left foot lob ruled out for a close offside decision.

Wing-back Jacob Laskowski, who had a goal disallowed early in the first half. managed to score from an acute angle to take his season’s tally to six, the highest number in the squad to see his side surge into a commanding 4-0 lead.

Athletic lost shape and composure and conceded a consolation goal in the final 10 minutes, but were safely through.

The Wates man of the match award was shared by Chris Crawshaw, Aaron Dooley and Marshall.