Oxenhope Rec 6 Leeds City 3

OXENHOPE were crowned the cream of West Yorkshire as they upset the cup favourites with a superb team performance.

A grand total of 126 teams had entered this competition back in September, which culminated in the Worth Valley village side lifting the trophy for the first time in their history last Friday.

They are only the third team from the Keighley area to have ever lifted the trophy following Keighley Central’s win in 1968 and Silsden’s triple success from 2002-04.

Dan Moriarty picked up the man of the match award following a second-half hat-trick but it was a real team effort. The players fell to their knees in disbelief at the final whistle, having convincingly beaten a team they had never overcome before in the league to create club history.

A bumper crowd saw Rec took the lead as early as the second minute when great work from Michael Garnett down the left saw the ball cut back to Moriarty.

He delivered a weighted cross to the far post and Sean Quinlan was perfectly placed to put the ball away.

Sam Lee pulled out a top drawer save to deny Leeds an instant response.

On the very next attack Oxenhope doubled their advantage. Garnett was again the provider as his measured cross was stroked home by Leon Smith.

Rec were in dreamland on the quarter-hour when Liam McNicol put a long ball over their defence for Tom Marshall to run onto and he clinically chipped the keeper to make it 3-0.

They were brought back down to earth five minutes later as a header at the far post reduced the deficit.

Leeds now applied the pressure but Rec were unlucky not to grab an unlikely fourth just before the break when McNicol went on a lung-bursting run down the left before his floated ball to the far post was finger-tipped over by the keeper.

Oxenhope made it 4-1 ten minutes into the second half. Smith put a through pass to Moriarty, who drove the ball over the keeper and into the net.

With a three-goal cushion, the underdogs could now relax as Josh Kaine and Quinlan dominated the midfield.

It got even better for the Worth Valley side when Moriarty burst through into the penalty area and was pulled back by City’s skipper, who duly received a straight red. Moriarty, with a staccato run-up, coolly put away the spot-kick off the underside of the bar.

Leeds were now playing for their pride and struck back when a cross from the left was headed in to make the score 5-2.

Moriarty then struck a memorable sixth from distance for the goal of the game to claim his hat-trick, his shot going in of the far post.

Leeds did pull a third goal back late on but it did not matter as the County Cup was on its way back to the Recreation Ground.

Man of the match and stand-in skipper Moriarty, along with injured and sidelined captain Ben White, lifted the coveted silverware in front of their delirious supporters.

Oxenhope, who were due to visit Brighouse in the league last night, defend the Keighley Challenge Cup in the final against local rivals Steeton at Silsden tomorrow (7.30pm).

Oxenhope: Lee, Nelson, McNicol, Metcalfe, Walton, Kaine, Smith (Morris), Moriarty, Garnett, Quinlan (Wells), Marshall (Day). Subs not used: Hopkinson, Ritson.