Comeback kings

Royton Athletic 5, Westwood 2

ROYTON Athletic, from the Midas Plumbing and Heating Oldham Sunday League Martin Buckley Division Two, caused a big upset in the Challenge Cup.

They overcame newly-promoted Westwood, from David Giblin Division One, to book their place in the semi-finals.

In what player-manager Keith Bradbury described as his side’s biggest match, Athletic recovered from a two-goal deficit to reach the last-four stage, where they will play either Rifle Range ‘A’ or Limeside King George.

Rifle Range and King George are facing a replay following a 1-1 draw.

Near perfect conditions at Clayton fields certainly helped a cultured Westwood side, with Al Amin’s movement and touch contributing to their two goals, scored by Abul Hussain and Moklisur Rahman midway through the first half.

But Jamie Clark’s effort — the first of his hat-trick — close to the break certainly put the cat among the pigeons (I saw one moggy and at least three pigeons on this afternoon, honest!).

From that moment on, Athletic went from strength-to-strength. Clark grabbed his second after 64 minutes, before Andy Walsh made it 3-2 with 15 minutes left.

Steve Palfreyman got Athletic’s fourth two minutes later, and then Clark got his third with a 30-yard free-kick in the 81st minute.

The romance of the cup is very much alive – even in the Oldham Sunday League.
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