STEETON fell at the first hurdle in this season’s West Riding County Cup in heartbreaking fashion.
For the second consecutive week, they were the better side for large parts of the game against a side from a higher division.
However, caught on the counter deep into injury time, a 92nd minute strike from former Chevron Callan Parker-Wells broke the visitor’s hearts and sent Campion through to the Second Round.
The opening exchanges of the encounter set the tone for a mild autumn’s evening in Manningham.
Both sets of players came firing out of the traps with a series of crunching tackles, counter attacking football, and pulsating play on a heavy pitch.
Despite this, the first chance of the match would not come until the 17th minute.
Jake Townsend beat his man down the left channel, whipping his cross towards the back post.
Once there, Lewis Gartland took a touch but saw his shot turned round the post for a corner by the first of what proved to be a string of impressive saves from Ed Wilczynski in the Campion goal.
At the opposite end, James Catlow tipped a strike from close range over the bar after being left one-on-one following a slip in the crucial moment from one of his defenders.
Wilczynski made a further two superb stops in quick succession to keep both Owen Williamson and Josh Debenham at bay with the end-to-end action then seeing Jacob Holgate forced into a last-ditch tackle to prevent a certain opener for the hosts.
Campion were the side to break the deadlock with four minutes of the half left.
With Catlow struggling due to a groin injury that would force him out of the game at the half-time interval, Josh Green managed to squeeze a strike just inside the near post with the Steeton keeper struggling to get down in time to tip the ball away from goal.
The second half would see Steeton in the ascendancy for the most part but nearly after conceding a second, Dan Illingworth making an outstanding challenge inside the box against his former side to force a goal kick.
Steeton’s dominance following the restart paid off midway through the half, the Chevrons being rewarded with the equaliser.
Freshly introduced from the bench, Alex Stewart carved through the Campion defensive line like a hot knife through butter with a superb through ball.
The ball fell into the path of Debenham, the striker still having lots of work to do.
Forced wide by the defender, Debenham managed to round Wilczynski and finish into the open goal to set up a pulsating final quarter of the game.
Controversy soon followed with both teams falling victim to poor refereeing calls.
The first went against Steeton, Macca Smith seeing a clear penalty given as a decision against him as the referee ruled that he had fouled the opposition keeper.
The resulting free kick saw Campion go through to double their lead, or so they thought, play this time being pulled back for a foul in the build-up to the bemusement of all in attendance.
A heroic clearance of the line from Arley Barnes kept the score level in the 80th minute but injury time heartbreak was to follow.
Winning a free kick on the edge of the hosts area, the strike failed to beat the wall and allowed Campion to launch a counter.
Chipping the onrushing Kelly, Aidan Kirby would see his ambitious strike agonisingly hit the crossbar, but the ball stayed live and in play.
The square pass followed into the path of Parker-Wells to finish and break Steeton hearts.
STEETON (Subs): Catlow (Kelly); M Smith (Lynn); Lloyd; Barnes; Illingworth; Holgate; Green; Gartland; Debenham; Williamson (A Stewart); Townsend (McNally). Sub (Not Used): Mitchell
GOAL (Assist): Debenham 63’ (A Stewart)
