City boss braced for the 'slog from hell'
By Andrew Groves
RIPON City boss Charlie Brown is preparing himself for the two month slog from hell as his side attempt to furrow through a mountain full of games in their quest for cup glory.
The Mallorie Park outfit still have 11 West Yorkshire Premier League games to play before the second weekend in May which will mean a return to mid-week fixtures for Brown’s side.
City will finally get back to the league tomorrow after a host of cup clashes filled the majority of their March schedule. They’ll travel to Rothwell looking to make it two Premier Division wins in a row after the 1-0 victory at Beeston way back on February 13.
City’s reward for their recent League Cup quarter-final win over Kellingley Welfare will take them to Nostell Minners Welfare next Thursday when they tackle Beeston for a place in the final of the competition (7.30pm ko).
They’ll be back in league action two days later and will play their rearranged Whitworth Cup quarter-final against Knaresborough Celtic on Easter Monday which was called off due to Saturday’s rain.
“It’s going to be mad,” said Brown.
“But we’d much rather have it this way than any other. You want to be playing for something at this stage of the season.
“It’s going to be interesting but we’ve got 11 league games still to play. The League Cup final has been pencilled in for May 6 and you can see us playing on after that.
“But we’ve just got to get on with it now. We’re back to the league this weekend against Rothwell who have had some pretty impressive results of late.
“We’ve got a few games in hand and although we’re not pushing the panic button we’d rather be winning and move away from the bottom a bit.
“We haven’t played a while in the league. We’ll be looking to build on our Beeston result.”
BOROUGHBRIDGE will be seeking to bounce back from their 2-1 defeat away at Pool on Saturday when they travel to Altofts tomorrow.
‘Bridge lost the opportunity to go top of the pile, for a short while at least, with this narrow defeat. There was little to divide the sides in the opening 10 minutes with the tide beginning to turn on 14 minutes when Alistair Hogg brought down Matt White but the ‘Bridge ‘keeper made amends by diving to his left to keep out Andy Graham’s spot kick.
Pool then enjoyed a good ten minute spell before ‘Bridge began to assert their own pressure only for Ben Jones, Paul Eagling and Ben Darville to all fail with decent opportunities to trouble Andy Caine in the home goal.
On 38 minutes Hogg produced the save of the game as he denied Neil Ebden’s top corner bound 25 yarder. But he was unable to do anything about Graham’s second penalty four minutes into injury time after ‘Bridge had two penalty appeals turned down themselves.
Hogg continued to be the busier of the two ‘keepers with two fine saves in the opening 15 minutes of the half and then made the error that led to the corner from which Chris Thompson converted for Pool’s second in the 73rd minute.
Four minutes later ‘Bridge were back in with a shout as Eagling scored from the spot and even though they did have a couple of chances in the last few minutes it was Pool who came closest when Ben Mudd headed a Dean Wagstaff effort off the line. Man-of-the-match was Alastair Hogg.
BOROUGHBRIDGE A beat Brafferton 2-1 but their opponents started the brighter underlined by Jo Turner on 26 minutes as he crafted his way through the Brafferton high defensive line, and held off the chasing defender to finish with aplomb.
‘Bridge looked in control until a miscued clearance from Wayne Fisher left Ritchie Wass the simple task of hitting home the equaliser against the run of play into an empty net.
After the break the home side increased their work rate cutting down the space in midfield and it was on 56 minutes that ‘Bridge made the decisive breakthrough.
Joe Turner had his effort well saved by Kirby following some good wide play from Sean Corbett but the ball ran loose to Liam Bannard who coolly placed his effort into the roof of the net from a tight angle. Man-of-the-match was Steve Warburton.
‘Bridge’s West Yorkshire League game with Robin Hood Athletic was cancelled.
This Sunday it’s Veterans day at ‘Bridge with Ilkley playing Thorpe Vets kick off 1pm. Following that will be Boroughbridge v Bardsey at 3pm.
West Yorkshire League Premier League
PPts
Bardsey 20 43
Boroughbridge 23 41
Beeston St Anthony's 19 36
Leeds City 19 33
Sherburn White Rose 18 33
Knaresborough Town 17 30
Altofts 21 30
Whitkirk Wanderers 21 29
Field Sports & Social 21 28
Ripon City 18 24
Pool 18 24
Rothwell Athletic 23 23
Otley Town 23 23
Aberford Albion 21 21
Carlton Athletic 19 16
Ossett Common Rovers 19 12
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Weather for Ripon
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North east
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Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
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