Emley won their first trophy as a senior non-league side in their very first season in the Yorkshire League.  This came in the form of the Yorkshire League Cup in a time when such league cup competitions were held in much higher regard than they are now.

Emley had met Rawmarsh, who had already won the Yorkshire League First Division title, the previous Monday where the two teams played out a 0-0 draw.  That match was played in front of 1575 spectators who paid the magnificent total of £150.  It was far from a dull goalless draw however and saw an Emley goal disallowed (for offside) after the referee had already awarded the goal, a great penalty save by Barry Casson as well as Rawmarsh hitting the woodwork twice.

Amazingly Emley had played two more games following the final (on the next night – the Tuesday and the Thursday!), but then had a nice four-day break before the replay. This match, as with the original was played a Stocksbridge Works’ ground, and this time attracted over 2000 spectators.

Emley had the better of the game on the whole which didn’t reach the hights of the goalless draw the previous week.  They came closest to scoring in the first half when first Brookes fired narrowly wide and then Pamment was put through by Kettlewell and his shot was just saved by the Rawmarsh keeper, Short.  Finally, at the start of the second half Emley took the lead.  In the 51st minute, Brookes made a run and managed to slip the ball through to Stuart Greaves who fired a shot past Short.  The ball hit the bar and bounced down, near the line.  Fortunately, the linesman was in a good position to declare the ball had crossed the line.

Soon afterwards what had been a tough tackling contest boiled over.  Roger Wood brought down the Rawmarsh centre-forward Wassell, who retaliated “rather violently”.  The two players then got involved in a “skirmish” which resulted in both being sent off.  Emley tired as the game wore on and Rawmarsh appealed for a penalty when the ball seemed to hit an Emley hand in the area but the ref was having none of it.

Three minutes from time came the killer goal.  As Rawmarsh pressed for the equaliser, Pamment nipped in to take the ball from Lowe and ran half the length of the pitch to slip the ball, almost casually, past Short.

Emley’s first trophy of many over the following years was collected by captain John Hall, who had missed the game due to a broken collar bone.

Team: Casson; D Hall, Ellam; Wood, Brook, Matley; Morley, Brookes, Pamment, Kettlewell, Greaves.  Sub: Burke.

Headlines and photographs courtesy of Huddersfield Examiner and the Huddersfield and District Chronicle