AFC Emley 4-3 Winterton Rangers
Northern Counties East League Division One
Saturday 19th November 2016
We stopped off for lunch in Cleckheaton before arriving at our guest house in Huddersfield at 2.15pm. After quickly checking in I shot off along the Wakefield Road to Emley.
Farming was the chief industry in Emley, then by the 19th century rich deposits of coal had made mining an important industry along with the more traditional weaving. The Emley Moor Colliery was the main employment in the village until it closed in 1985 after the year-long miners' strike. The site of the old pit is now a business park.
Following the disbanding of the reserves, several former Emley members and fans formed the current club in 2005, moving back to their home village. During their debut season, AFC Emley finished third in the West Yorkshire League Division One and quickly stepped up into the Northern Counties East Football League Division One the following season.
The club now run both a successful development team in the Lancashire League (East) and a youth side. The senior side had their best season to date last term when they finished 4th in the NCEL Division One.
The Main Stand is the classic welfare style structure with elevated seating with stair access at the front. The stand opened in September 1989 and sits on the halfway line, filled with 330 yellow flip seats. The ground has a capacity of 2,000 with covered terracing at the entrance goal and open standing at the far end. The changing room block and social club which opened in 1972, runs between the turnstile and the stand. The ground is three sided with a fence down one side separating the neighbouring cricket pitch. The Floodlights were first switched on in 1981 with Huddersfield Town providing the opposition for the first match under lights.
The hosts soon took charge with Matthew Jackson firing in from close range following a corner kick, before Ashley Flynn rifled in a powerful right foot drive. The visitors halved the deficit on 34 minutes when Matthew Crane headed in at the far post from a corner, but the two goal cushion was soon restored when Flynn got on the end of a perfect Aaron Joseph cross.
Emley finally added to the score with twenty minutes remaining, when an effort from substitute Alex Slack hit the defender before falling nicely into his path to smash in on the volley from 20 yards.
That seemed to be game over, but on 77 minutes Rangers pulled one back as Jamie Richardson capitalised on some slack defending, then seconds later Crane grabbed his second to make it 4-3.
The match could have gone either way but Emley hung on to claim the three points which takes them up to fifth in the table.
Matchday Stats
AFCE 4(Jackson 27 Flynn 30,36 Slack 70)
WRFC 3(Crane 34,78 Richardson 77)
Top Bloke - Liam Schofield(AFC Emley)
Att.151
Admission £5
Programme £1 Coffee £1
Pin badge £3.75
Matchday Web Album (22 pictures from the Welfare Ground)