Bumper crowd cheers Emley on to victory over Silsden

In the first of three games in six days for the Pewits, the win kept up the pressure on Toolstation NCE Premier Division leaders North Ferriby, who also won, 4-3 away at Winterton, writes Martin Eastwood.

Emley have remained unbeaten in the league since the opening day defeat at Ferriby and, watched by the Welfare Ground’s biggest crowd since 2017 of over 500, they did not let their supporters down in their first Saturday home game of the season.

They dominated the opening exchanges but could not really test Sam Kelly, the Silsden goalkeeper who left Emley in the summer.

It was the visitors who posted the first real attack on goal, but Kelly’s replacement Dec Lambton only had to watch as a shot went wide.

Silsden were looking dangerous on the break, a cross from their right was put wide when it looked like it was going to be the opening goal and Emley punished them for that.

Jake Kelly, hoping to get one over on his brother in the visiting nets, slung in a cracking low cross but it evaded everyone and went out harmlessly.

On a glorious, sunny, autumnal day, Emley soon got into their stride, Alex Metcalfe saw a shot saved by Sils keeper Kelly and Iyrwah Gooden’s follow up shot was also blocked.

However, it was only a brief respite for the visitors as they found themselves 2-0 down within two minutes.

After picking up a ball in from the left, Gooden’s dancing feet bamboozled Sam Kelly and he was able to slot into the back of the net for the opening goal.

Emley were on their way and it would not be long before the big crowd were cheering again, a fine goal it was too.

Within the space of 60 seconds, Emley had regained possession, Gooden in space after his well-timed run beat the offside trap, he squared to the league’s top scorer Joe Jagger who opened his body up beautifully to curl the ball past the diving Kelly, the ex-Pewit got hands to it but the shot was too good.

There were smiles as bright as the October sunshine on the faces of Emley players and fans, and those smiles were almost brightened even more a few minutes later as Emley tormented Silsden.

Jagger, who must be sky high on confidence at the moment, found himself free 18 yards out and tried to chip Kelly who had come off his line, but he could not get the height and Kelly was able to catch to deny his former teammate.

Kelly was rooted to his line a few minutes later, though, as a superb corner was met by the head of Gooden, but he headed into the hordes in the shed rather than into the net.

Silsden, to their credit, battled and fought for everything, a little too aggressive at times and when captain Hancock took exception to a strong tackle in midfield by Scott Brown, that caused a melee and he was shown a yellow by the referee.

They did create a couple of good chances and could have halved the deficit had it not been for Lambton, who got down low to deny former Emley and Golcar man Josimar Bradshaw with a brilliant save then saw a shot from Ndlovu whizz past his post.

The teams emerged into still brilliant sunshine and a big, noisy crowd boosted by Emley’s junior partner clubs who were certainly enjoying themselves.

Gooden had the first opportunity, but his shot at the Warburton end went wide and Jagger tried another curler but that went wide too.

Silsden were still giving it their all and they could and should have got on the scoresheet, but again, Lambton kept them out.

After a mix-up in the Emley defence, Lambton was forced to come off his line to avert the danger, however the ball fell nicely to a Silsden attacker who blasted what most thought was a goal to reduce the deficit.

Lambton, though, was already scrambling back and he produced an amazing block to deny the visitors, a superb piece of goalkeeping by the young Pewit that rightly earned applause around the ground.

Jake Kelly then had a shot blaze wide after a cracking run down the right wing that saw him cut inside two defenders. Sam was probably grateful it was off target!

Brown headed over for the visitors and, again, Emley made them pay for that by going up the other end and finding a third goal.

Great work by Jagger who, pulled his marker one way then the other before firing a shot which Kelly did well to block, but only into the path of Paul Walker who headed back over the keeper for his first Emley goal to all but seal the points.

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With the game and the points safely in the bag, it became important for Emley to keep a clean sheet, and this they did, led superbly by Rikki Paylor, and James Knowles who was replaced by Sam Pashley.

Silsden rarely breached the Emley defence and when they did their shooting was wayward, just a couple of shots wide was the best they could muster.

Emley made changes late on to see the game out, Donae Lawrence replaced Brown in centre midfield, Hayden Webster replaced Walker, Charlie Smith took over Paylor’s central defensive role while Declan Dawson returned from injury in pre-season to make his second debut for Emley in place of Jake Kelly, who certainly won ‘battle of the brothers’ against his twin in the Silsden goals.

Emley almost rounded off the afternoon with a fourth goal. Jagger lined up one of his trademark long range free-kicks which Kelly deflected and the rebound was also saved.

Emley now look forward to hosting Athersley Rec in a league cup tie tomorrow night (Tuesday) followed by a trip to Hemsworth MW in the Premier Division on Friday.