STEETON exited the West Riding County Cup at the first-round stage last night with a 6-2 home loss to Pontefract Collieries.

The Collieries, who sit two steps higher on the pyramid than the Chevrons, showed their class throughout with a composed display to earn progression in the competition.

And despite a second consecutive heavy defeat, Roy Mason insisted that the positives of his side testing themselves against a higher calibre of opposition outweighed the negatives.

In truth, the tie was over by half-time as Pontefract took a three-goal advantage in the break and were good value for their lead.

After firing a couple of early warning shots, the opening goal of the evening came on the quarter of the hour mark.

Louie Chorlton found space down the right wing for the visitors and sent a teasing delivery towards the penalty spot.

Adam Haw lost his man and turned the ball inside the far post to break the deadlock, with the second goal soon following.

A diagonal ball found the feet of Mikey Dunn, the winger beat the offside trap and took a touch inside the area before firing across James Catlow and inside the far post.

Steeton responded immediately to gain a foothold in the match.

With the game now at a frantic pace, Jake Townsend found space down the right channel to whip a superb delivery to the far side of the box.

Jack Lynn took possession of the delivery and composed himself to curl the ball around the goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

Townsend saw a yellow card shortly after for a late challenge, however if not from some scrambling defence, Louis Fialdini could have levelled the scores after an error by Pontefract keeper Henry Holder.

Two goals in the space of four minutes shortly before the interval for Pontefract ended the game as a contest.

Dunn scored his second of the game after taking a look up before firing the ball into the back of the net from 20 yards out.

A superb save from Catlow denied Dunn his hat-trick but it did nothing more than delay the inevitable.

From the resulting corner, Haw lost his man at the near post to flick the ball home for his side’s fourth.

The second half began at a much slower pace, but a fifth goal for the visitors soon arrived.

A long ball towards the box drew Catlow out from his goal as he looked to clear.

Unfortunately for the Steeton keeper, Chorlton managed to get a toe onto the ball and round him to tap home into the empty net.

With confidence now back flowing through the Pontefract players, they continued to turn the screw and this in turn saw Mo Farhan Subhani enter the referee’s book for a late challenge on halfway.

And things went from bad to worse as Jordan Townend was carried from the field and hospitalised with an ankle injury.

The sixth goal came for the Collieries when Dunn secured himself the match ball.

He tapped home a low ball that came across the face of the goal after some good play down the wing.

James Edgley headed over for Steeton, with Rory Langdon trying his luck from range before becoming heavily involved in a late consolation goal.

Reading a long ball over the top superbly, the striker looked to round Holder but was felled inside the area by the young keeper.

Arale Mohamed composed himself before coolly sending Holder the wrong way from twelve yards out to slot the penalty home for the final goal of a hectic evening’s football.