Last night in the EFL Cup, it wasn’t a very good time for teams from Yorkshire, with every team going out at the first hurdle.
Tonight’s ties see Leeds United face Fleetwood with the chance to gain some consolatory redemption for ‘God’s Own County’.
Back to last night. It was a case of extra time and 90th minute goals that became the bête noir of the Yorkshire sides as late equalisers and winners helped to kick out sides from West and South Yorkshire.
Not a magnificent seven for Yorkshire as region forced to county their losses
Accrington Stanley vs Bradford City
The tie between Stanley and the Bantams (there’s an Indie band name for you) was the only one to finish goalless AET and go to the lottery that is penalties.
Bradford City are known as the ‘penalty kings’ but were last night kicked off their throne with the Lancastrians eventually winning the tie 11-10 on penalties.
It took 26 penalties to divide the two sides, goalkeepers Aaron Chapman (Stanley) and Colin Doyle (Bradford) each scoring at the end of the first round of spot-kicks.
Accrington’s Jordan Clark netted the winning penalty after Reece Webb-Foster missed his for City.
This was another game that went to extra time and saw a Yorkshire side knocked out of the cup without even getting started in the competition.
Barnsley scored first through Josh Scowen (21’) with an own goal from the Tykes’ Adam Davies (52’) dragging the two sides onto level terms.
Extra time was a battle for both sides, a battle that was eventually won by Northampton courtesy of Jon-Joe O’Toole’s 114th minute winner.
Cambridge United vs Sheffield Wednesday
Another game that was settled after an additional 30 minutes with Cambridge seeing off the much regarded Owls.
Cambridge forced extra time with Piero Mingoia’s late equaliser ( 90’) cancelling out the opener (52’) from Wednesday’s Portuguese player Lucas Joao.
The winner for Cambridge came Luke Berry, his 118th minute score allowing the Cantabrigians to progress to the EFL Cup’s Second Round.
Doncaster Rovers vs Nottingham Forest
The South Yorkshire side were within a whisker of forcing extra time against their Championship opponents, a late Forest goal denying them this opportunity.
Forest took the lead through David Vaughan (10’), a lead that they held until midway through the second half. Liam Mandeville (69’) drew Donny level and they pushed until it seemed that extra-time would be needed to separate both sides.
However, Forest winger Jamie Ward (90’) popped up to sour those thoughts and send Forest through 2-1 at the death.
It was a goal fest at the New York Stadium, with the west coast visitors emerging 5-4 victors after extra time.
In a thoroughly entertaining affair, Motecambe took the lead through Cole Stockton (6’), it taking the Millers until midway through the second half (59’) with Greg Halford equalising through a penalty.
In the final 30 of regulation time, there was a four-goal spurt to take the game into extra-time at 3-3. First Jack Dunn (68’) put Morecambe 2-1 ahead before goals from Jerry Yates (81’) and Anthony Forde (88’) gave the Millers what looked like a winning 3-2 scoreline.
However, Jack Dunn popped up with a 90th minute penalty to force extra-time upon both sets of fans. Kevin Ellison (113’) struck first for Morecambe in the second period of extra-time before Jack Dunn (118’) scored his hat-trick goal to give Morecame a 5-3 lead with two minutes left.
There was still time for a fourth goal for Rotherham (119’), Yates getting his second of the evening, but it was Morecambe who go through 5-4 to the second round.
Shrewsbury Town vs Huddersfield Town
Tonight proved to have no Shakespearean overtones with there being no taming of the Shrews. Instead it was Shrewsbury who did the taming of Huddersfield and the Wagner Revolution.
The quickest goal of the night through A.J Leitch-Smith (1’) saw the Shrews takes very early lead in the game. They held this lead until half-time approached, Huddersfield’s on-loan Bundesliga striker Elias Kachunga equalising (39’) to renew parity between the two sides.
This 1-1 scoreline lasted until the final quarter of the game, before the Shrews’ Louis Dodds (77’) popped up with a second Shrewsbury goal that proved to be the winning goal of the game.
Sheffield United vs Crewe Alexandra
In another tie that went to extra-time, this was a game of the Blades vs the Railwaymen in last night’s fixture and the final game in which a Yorkshire side was knocked out of the cup.
The Blades took an early lead (6’) thanks to striker Leon Best’s goal, and it was a lead that was to last the duration of the game’s regulation time until Crewe’s Ryan Lowe equalised (90’) to force an extra 30 minutes.
It was Lowe who again popped up (100’) with another goal, his second being the goal that put the Railwaymen on the right tracks to the EFL Cup’s second round.
