Willow Park 2-1 Ferrybridge Amateurs

Willow Park continued their steady climb up the first division of the Selby & District League with a hard-fought victory over the leaders on Saturday. The Pontefract team – who were forced to play this home fixture at their opponents ground due to the poor state of Pontefract Park following the big freeze – were good value for their victory, restricting the leaders to a single shot on target throughout the entire ninety minutes. The fact that the single shot resulted in a goal meant that Park had to dig out a victory from a performance that merited a more convincing scoreline.

The match started in controversial fashion, with both teams being denied a reasonable penalty claim in the first five minutes. However, Willow Park were not to be denied for long, and scored after 8 minutes when Lee Howorth latched onto an excellent pass from Joe Ayre. Howorth’s powerful shot was well parried into the path of the onrushing Matt Rush, who smashed the ball into the roof of the net. The match appeared to be becoming a microcosm of Park’s season when they were pegged back on 23 minutes, despite creating several clear openings to extend their lead. This time it was a long ball over the Park defence that was their undoing, as Ferrybridge’s sole on-target effort beat the otherwise solid Martin Parkin at his near post.

With the sides level at half time, Ferrybridge started the second half strongly, enjoying their best period of the match. However, the Pontefract team soaked the pressure by maintaining men behind the ball and restricted the “visitors” to a series of corners. A triple-change in personnel for Park saw Dave Stevenson replacing the excellent Glen Shaw, Sam Pettit replacing Matt Rush, and Gareth Morgan replacing the tiring Lee Howorth, who is still coming back to full fitness following a two-year injury lay-off, but showing his class nevertheless. The changes seemed to inject a new energy into Willow Park, and the introduction of Morgan, in particular, reaped dividends when his long throw-in enabled Michael Berry to knock the ball down for the imperious Joe Ayre to slot home the winner with eight minutes remaining. The solid Park – marshalled in defence by Berry, skipper Gary Asquith and the excellent Mark Stringer – were able to close down the match without being threatened.  

Park have now taken their unbeaten run to six games during a period in which they have taken four points off the erstwhile leaders – their improvement in form owing much to the introduction of Saturday’s match-winner Ayre alongside the excellent Rich Poole in the engine room, and the ceaseless energy of players such as Danny Atchinson and Luke Howorth. However, Ayre was pipped to the Man of the Match trophy by Matt Rush, who bravely battled through illness to make a major contribution to his team’s cause.

Willow Park - Martin Parkin, Glen Shaw (Dave Stevenson, 70) Mark Stringer, Gary Asquith, Micheal Berry, Danny Atchinsion, Joe Ayre, Rich Poole, Matt Rush (Sam Pettit, 75) Luke Howorth, Lee Howorth (Gaz Morgan, 80)