Andy Parky's Immanuel side scrapped their back to the top of the table with a win over the Golden Cup at Pleasington.
Two new signings where made on the day which meant the in-form Andy MacDonald had to unfortunately miss out as Fergus Heyes and Matt Malonie made their debuts from the bench.
The Golden Cup only had nine players to start the game, not what you need when you are playing a team in the middle of a title race. And what Oswaldtwistle Immanuel didn't need was their closest rivals for the Division 3 title to be playing the bottom of the league just 100 yards away. Victory was going to be essential.
Immanuel started brightly and put the Golden Cup under some real pressure early on but failed to break the deadlock and gradually the Golden Cup grew into it and without offering much attacking threat they began to comfortably stifle the usually dangerous Immanuel.
Parky tried to instill some enthusiasm and intensity from the touchline but his mind seemed elsewhere. How was Leechy doing in his Futsal tournament? One would imagine that he was scoring goals.
It took 30 minutes for the deadlock to be broken. A change of formation for Immanuel to try to offer more of an attacking threat lead to Toby Hodgkiss chasing a loose ball to the right corner, getting their before the onrushing keeper before beating him and laying it across the box for Danny Mooring to slide it home. Surely that was all that would be needed for Immanuel to kick on an score plenty more.
Not in the first half though. The remaining 15 minutes of the first half were a story of bookings. Matt Hodgkiss for a clumsy tackle, John Spencer for disgracefully staying on his feet when tripped in the area and Toby Hodgkiss for being inebriated and hardwork.
Half time came and Fergus Heyes came on to replace the injured Nathan Berry. Berry had been strugglin with his groin in the latter stages of the first half. Fortunately, his kit fitted more loosely around the groin than it did his upper half.
It was to be Fergus Heyes's debut and everyone hoped for a good start to settle him down quickly. And what a start! A minute later, Toby Hodgkiss laid it back for Heyes to lob the keeper from 25 yards and provide a genuine goal of the season contender.
A few minutes later and Spencer was in on the act, beating 3 before putting it into the bottom corner. 3-0 and the extra man that the Golden Cup had found at half time had seemingly had an adverse effect. Immanuel were on their way to victory.
Then, the curse of the Mooring's struck. As Parky was deciding which of his yellow carded midfielders to take off, Danny Mooring felt his hamstring. It wouldn't be a Sunday if a Mooring didn't get injured. Time for another debut as Matt Malonie replaced him.
The two injured players were told to keep walking on the sidelines to stop the muscles seizing up. And walk they did, straight over to the Stanley Ultras game. Wonderful support!
They returned with good news though, Hyndburn Youth were somehow holding Stanley Ultras to a draw. The Ultras, with their flares and scarves over their faces looked distraught.
Immanuel were determined to make things difficult and a good passing move led to the Golden Cup pulling one back before Matt Hodgkiss found space at the far post and received a cross whilst unmarked and made no mistake. If only it wasn't his own goalmouth and not his own keeper who had no answers to that sort of strike. 3-2. Game on.
Immanuel pushed to add to their tally and although their link up play improved in the latter stages they still lacked the end product to make sure of the victory. Hyndburn Youth didn't have the same problems though as they surprisingly took the lead against Stanley Ultras. One of the Ultras' twins, either Gobshite A or Gobshite B taking a leaf out of Calamity Hodgkiss's book and scoring an own goal. If Immanuel could hold on they would top the league.
They did more than that. Spencer bagged his second and Immanuel's fourth with 9 minutes to go to seal the game and rubber stamp the return to the top of the league. It had been a man of the match display from Spencer and he was deserving of his goals.
It wasn't vintage Immanuel but it was enough and it is often said that champions win when they are not playing well. If that is true then Immanuel look like Champions.
