FOR the second time in a month Otley Town got the better of Pool in a Cup Competition - this latest victory coming just two weeks after the 3-1 West Riding County Cup win at The Old Showfield.

This game played at Arthington Lane was much closer with the game ultimately decided by a penalty shoot out.

Otley started on the front foot and deservedly took the lead when Callan Parker-Wells was first to react to a low driven Harry Hawkins corner, stabbing home from 6 yards. For the first 20 minutes of the game Hawkins playing on the right was on fire creating mayhem in the Pool rearguard and Pool wisely withdrew their starting left back; the replacement Ryan Firth making a big difference.

Pool had reacted well to losing the early goal and secured the equaliser on the half hour mark also from a corner with a downward header from Bulcock. This wasn’t great defending by Otley but they were probably still wondering how the corner had been awarded given Bobby Neesam had been ‘wiped out’ by Pool challenge in the build up.

Now Otley Town reacted in a positive fashion and once again got their noses in front this time courtesy of Jack Richmond who was having his best game of the season for Otley. Richmond's free kick on the edge of the box hit the wall but he followed up with a strong drive which took a big deflection to leave the unfortunate home keeper stranded. Half time 1-2.

On the restart Pool made their intentions clear immediately bringing on the electric Jack Farrimond and later for the last twenty minutes two giants in Harry Higgins and Billy Drake. It wasn’t long before Farrimond was weaving his magic perhaps with extra incentive against his old club. Whatever his coruscating play rallied the home side and for a while it was last ditch, if not desperate, defending that kept the scoreboard static. At this point Otley we’re thankful for the experience of centre back Jonathan Jackson who was having a tremendous afternoon.

Otley weathered the storm and could easily have had three goals themselves in the second half. First Neesam headed wide when well placed, then sub Andy Howland volleyed over, but the best chance fell to Parker-Wells with a one-on-one with Andy Doey - the veteran keeper coming out on top with a very good save.

There were only two minutes left when Pool got the equaliser they probably deserved, given the pressure they exerted in the second half. Town failed to clear a low cross from the left and in the ensuing melee Pool's Farrimond rattled home to take the game to penalties.

Not much can be said about this way of ending a hard fought game.

The losers hate it and the winners are ecstatic. For the record Otley won it 4-3 their scorers being Richmond, Parker-Wells, Lambert-Tuthill and Howland. Pool missed one penalty and Wayne Mahomet also made a great save.

A number of players could have been awarded Man of the Match - Richmond for having a fantastic game, scoring a goal and taking his penalty well, however, by a whisker, Jackson took home to award for his dominating performance at centre half.

Town will travel to Bramhope AFC on Saturday 15th January in the Semi-Finals of the Competition.

There is now a break for Christmas until Saturday 8th January when Town host WY Premier side, Huddersfield Amateur in the West Riding FA Challenge Cup, Reserves travel to Field in Alliance 1, Thirds travel to Cowling in Craven Division 2 and Fourths host Addingham in Division 3.