Sporting Armley lifted themselves off the foot of the All Sports Awards League table with a routine win over Belle Isle WMC.
Armley's squad was stretched for this midweek game, with several players unavailable and even manager Jason Lovett unable to attend.
Just as on the previous Saturday, only 11 players made it for the match, but this time the 11 did enough to claim victory.
The impressive Adam Hamblett returned in goal and put in a great performance, particularly when it came to rushing out of his box to intercept the ball.
Glenn King returned to the defence alongside Richard Moses, but without Pearson and Wheeler, Wayne Howe and Elliott Stubbs were forced to become makeshift rightback and leftbacks respectively.
The midfield and attack remained strong, with Gareth Knight and James Lee in the middle of the park. Liam Robinson returned to take up his usual left wing position, with Bryant Coldwell on the opposite flank.
Up front, Danny Goulden led the line alongside the big target man Andi Bellhouse.
Sporting began the game strongly and went into the break 1-0 up thanks to Danny Goulden's 16 goal of the season.
Bryant Coldwell won the ball well and chipped the ball over the defence for Goulden to run to the by-line. With options available in the box, Goulden was selfish and went for goal from a tight angle. The gamble paid off though and his team mates celebrated the end of his mini goal drought as the ball smashed in low at the near post.
Early into the second half Sporting scored again, this time a simple header from Gareth Knight from a Liam Robinson corner kick. Knight had all the time and space in the world to head home from a few yards out.
Sporting then let their 2 goal cushion slip, with the inexperienced wingbacks mostly to blame. The first came when Elliott Stubbs was caught in attack and Belle Isle broke down the right wing, forcing Richard Moses to come across, leaving space for their attacker to score from the resulting cross.
Then on the opposite side, Wayne Howe miscontrolled a high ball and then fell over, allowing Belle Isle to cut inside and fire low past Hamblett in a goal similar to Goulden's first half strike.
Sporting rallied round and restored their lead with a fantastic long range strike from James Lee.
The midfielder had just been knocked down by a challenge, and was keeled over trying to catch his breath when the ball fell just a few yards between him and the penalty area.
Still raging from the hard challenge he had just received, he quickly jumped up and smashed the ball from range into the top left corner to put Armley 3-2 up.
Then just before the end, Lee played Liam Robinson through down the right wing. The goalkeeper rushed out of his box to challenge Robinson, but the winger skillfully knocked the ball past him and it slowly trickled into the empty net for his 9th of the season.
Sporting moved up one place to 10th, but with 10 games still to play they could realistically still finish second if they win all their remaining games, such is the chaos of the fixture pile up this season.
