Steeton 2 Field 5

Steeton’s hopes of becoming only the third Keighley club to lift the prestigious West Riding County FA Challenge Cup in its 114-year history were dashed at Elland Road on Monday night.

The Chevrons were aiming to write themselves into the history books by joining Silsden and Keighley Central on the honours board.

Instead it was Field who took the spoils and clinched a trophy treble, having already won the Bradford & District FA Senior Cup and the West Yorkshire League Cup.

Backed by another large following, Steeton were caught cold within four minutes when they failed to deal with a corner.

Field skipper Darryl Leach bundled the ball in from close range, despite protests that goal- keeper Phil Rishton had been impeded.

Within a couple of minutes it got worse for the West Riding County Amateur League side. Again, they failed to deal with a corner and Josh Milner applied the finishing touch.

Things almost deteriorated further for Steeton as Arley Barnes’ back header had Rishton scrambling across his goal.

But before they could pause for breath, a long punt up field was met by the head of Chris Wood and his looping effort sailed over Rishton to put the Bradford side 3-0 up and in dreamland with only 14 minutes gone.

Steeton started to get back into the game as Michael Rhodes’ cross was met by Andy King, whose header was narrowly wide of the far post. Tim Hird then burst through after Jack Ogalbe had won the ball in midfield and his shot was narrowly wide of the near post.

It looked all over for Roy Mason’s men as Graham Holmes was adjudged to have handled in the box and John Penn made it 4-0 from the penalty spot for the West Yorkshire League side.

Incredibly, this sparked Steeton into life as King found Lee Reilly, who neatly lobbed the advancing keeper to reduce the arrears.

Within a minute Reilly had cut the deficit further as he was felled in the box and he stepped up to confidently dispatch the penalty.

Steeton were now getting on top, Sam Rooke heading narrowly wide from Rhodes’ corner.

However, just a couple of minutes before half-time a moment of madness from Andy Holden left the Chevrons with a mountain to climb. He was sent off for retaliation after being hacked down.

Steeton had to reshuffle the pack and were left with just three men at the back.

Despite the setback, they continued to push forward as Reilly and King both went close.

Barnes then had to be alert to sweep up as Field looked to get a final goal to kill the game off.

That duly arrived in the form of a spectacular strike from Milner after 57 minutes for his second of the match.

The game was well and truly over for Steeton 15 minutes later when Matt Kershaw was dismissed for dissent, reducing his side to just nine men.

Despite lacking in numbers, Steeton held their nerve and matched their opponents for the final 20 minutes with substitute Damien Whiteoak providing a steadying influence.

Despite their defeat, Steeton can be proud of the fact that they had reached the final for the first time in their history.

But they woke up on Tuesday morning thinking of what might have been.

Steeton: Rishton, Rhodes, Barnes, Kershaw, Rooke, Ogalbe (Sellars), Holden, Hird, Reilly (Spencer), Holmes (Whiteoak), King: Subs not used: Ferguson, Foster.