A controversial goal in which Elland goalscorer Jon Wilkinson seemed to be at least a yard offside shaped the outcome of this evenly contested semi final at Shroggs Park.

 

It was a hammer blow to Falcon Pine who had lead for a full hour, having opened the scoring in the opening few minutes after a mix up between the Elland keeper Maroney and a defender enabled player - manager Bob Bartle to take advantage by chipping into the empty net following good pressure by Matt Holroyd.

 

Pine enjoyed much of the possession in the first half with Chapman and Brownridge pulling the strings in midfield with Bartle and Scholey doing all they could to break up the Elland play to win the ball.

 

Falcon`s back 4 played superb with keeper Ben Orchard dealing with the many awkward and effective crosses that Elland were limited to and ex-Elland centre half Craig Smith gelling the Pine defence together.

 

It was Pine that should really have gone into the interval two up but a couple of decent chances went astray for rookie striker Adam Probets who on another day would have added to his 30 goal tally.

Elland were rocking and two of their own players had a handbags tiff in a heated argument that the red Mick Denton was forced to intervene

 

After the break Pine continued to match Elland man for man but were showing signs of breaking with the constant threat of man of the match Annis Khallifa along with fellow central midfielder Thomas.

Elland had obviously had a talking to during the interval and seemed intent on pushing forward but it wasn't until the introduction of Hoyle that led to them causing more problems for the Pine rearguard and on 65 minutes a a through ball to Jonny Wilkinson enabled him to run on to score with all the Falcon players wondering how it could not be off side.

 

Pine were reeling and unable to make inroads into Elands half for much of the second half it came as no real surprise to see Elland score the winner with around 20 minutes left from another brilliantly executed khallifa corner but Falcon will have been disappointed that nobody really jumped and Sam Frankland scored a free header to send his side into the final versus Royal.

 

In the last ten minutes Pine sent up lanky centre half but it was to no avail as they had lost their momentum as soon as it went to 1-1 but it was a fantastic effort for the division 2 side and give them real confidence for the future.