FIGHTING FARSLEY FLYING THE FLAG
FARSLEY Celtic go into the hat for tomorrow’s FA Trophy quarter-final draw as the only remaining side outside the National League top flight after victory in this battle of North v South Step 2 teams.
Hungerford led early on through Jake Evans, only for Celtic to hit back courtesy of Andy Butler.
Bobby Johnson’s penalty put Farsley 2-1 in front but after David Bremang restored parity almost immediately, Harry Jessop put the National League North Celts through with a 69th-minute winner.
“Congratulations to Farsley, they came with a gameplan and executed it superbly,” said Hungerford Town boss Danny Robinson. “We didn’t take our chances and were punished for our mistakes.”
Robinson’s side made a bright start with the lively Ryan Jones seeing an early shot parried away by Max Dearnley in the Farsley goal before Evans stepped up and brilliantly curled an eighth-minute free-kick into the top right hand corner for the opening goal.
Nine minutes later, however, Celtic were gifted an equaliser when the Crusaders failing to clear Luke Parkin’s corner and the ball found its way to Butler, who hit a curling shot that somehow crept in at the far post.
Hungerford should have retaken the lead just before the half-hour when Tyler headed wide from Christie Ward’s cross before the latter missed a golden opportunity to latch onto Jones’s cross.
Attacking down the slope in the second half, Farsley’s more direct style of play come to the fore as they tried to pin Hungerford in the lower half of the Bulpit Lane pitch.
But, on 62 minutes, it was Hungerford who struck next when Kyle Bailey had a moment of madness attempted to punch the ball into the air in the box and Johnson sent Jed Ward the wrong way from the spot.
The home team responded immediately. Within seconds, Ward slipped a ball through to Bremang who powered home an equaliser – his third goal in as many starts for the Crusaders.
Back came Farsley, however, and on 69 minutes they were back in front – Johnson floated the ball into the box, George Smith inadvertently flicked it into the path of Jessop who prodded the ball past Ward.
From there, Celtic looked to slow play down while the home side had a big penalty turned down when Adjei-Hersey looked to have been fouled but Butler proved too strong.
Bremang headed Hungerford’s last chance wide leaving Celtic to progress.
Farsley boss Russ Wilcox said: “It’s a fantastic day for us, I’m really proud of the team.”