After the high of reaching the Mark Hawkin's Cup Final on Wednesday night, Sporting Armley crashed out of the Sonder Centenery Cup at the quarter final stage against Premier Division high-flyers FC Bradford.
Armley simply didn't turn up for the first 15 minutes and found themselves 2-0 down in unfortunate circumstances. The first goal must go down as one of the most embarassing of the season. A long punt up field bounced over the Armley line of defenders and then over their goalkeeper Dennis Spencer.
Everyone stood and watched as the ball rebounded off the post and then back into the feet of the Bradford forward who was the only one who reacted to tap the ball into an empty net.
The second goal soon followed when Armley cleared a Bradford corner, but failed to move out quickly enough. All but one Armley player stepped up for offside, but there was one man playing the Bradford striker on, and he duly controlled the ball and fired low past Spencer.
Sporting rallied round and showed great determination to equalise before half time. Gareth Knight had a long range strike from the edge of the box strike the crossbar, which was the start of a 10 minute spell where Armley looked the better team.
Phil Wheeler hit a long ball up to Danny Goulden who ran through on goal, worked some space and hit a toe-poked shot that went in off the left post to make it 2-1. Minutes later, Gareth Knight played Iain McBurney through on goal with an instinctive back-heeled pass and the striker made no mistake with his finish to draw his side level.
FC Bradford were playing some good football and showing their class, and at half-time Sporting's manager Jason Lovett opted to change his line-up by bringing Anthony Morkos on for Aaron Dix and moving James Cowlam to the left flank.
It was stalemate for much of the second half, with both teams giving as good as they got and both defences holding strong. It was a really tight game and one that could be settled by a moment of brilliance or a bit of luck for one team, and in the end it was bad luck from Armley's point of view that led to the winner.
Bradford hit a long through ball for their striker to chase onto, and the pacey forward failed to beat the onrushing Dennis Spencer to the ball. Unfortunately for the Armley keeper, the ball somehow spilled out of his grasp as he landed on the ground and the Bradford striker nipped in to sidefoot the ball into the empty net.
There was still 30 minutes to play but Armley failed to get another equaliser, a task that wasn't helped by injuries to both strikers, one of which forced Danny Goulden to be substituted.
At the end of the day, FC Bradford showed their class and hopefully lessons can be learned for Armley to show the same kind of passing and movement as Bradford.
With the league championship almost in the bag, and a cup final to look forward to, Sporting have plenty of time to put this setback behind them and finish the season on a high.
