HUNTINGTON Rovers’ striker Liam Flanagan hit an extra-time hat-trick to fire the York Minster Engineering League’s representative side into the national final of the FA Inter-League Cup.

Super-sub Flanagan’s treble secured a 4-1 victory in their semi-final tie against the Kent County League on Harrogate Town’s snow-covered 3G pitch after Andrew Simpson’s opening goal had been cancelled out by sub George Latham.

The game could only go ahead after YMEL treasurer Andrew Blakey cleared the lines with a sweeping brush and, in difficult conditions, Chris Dyson headed the afternoon’s first chance just over after Jamie Wilstrop had beaten an away defender easily before crossing into the box.

Impressive Kent central-midfielder Mark Howells then began to exert his influence on proceedings and threatened to control the game, but the York defensive quartet of Matty Pallister, Dale Holding, Cam Sanderson and Sam Lingard were in top form and dealt with everything that was thrown at them.

That meant the visitors largely resorted to long-range shots, which were were easily dealt with by Wigginton Grasshoppers keeper Mike Clancy.

York, inspired by half-time words from the management team of Chris Smith and Simon Wood, started the second period in much better fashion and made the breakthrough on 65 minutes.

A typical great piece of closing-down play by Jonny Andrew forced a back pass to the Kent keeper Jack Moore and Wilstrop then set off in pursuit.

From the subsequent tackle, Wilstrop won the ball ten yards from goal on the left byline and his perfect low pass picked out Simpson, who had sprinted past two Kent defenders to slot the ball home.

The away team levelled, though, ten minutes later when the first defensive mistake by York saw Latham run on to a long high ball and past his static markers, who were appealing for offside.

He went on to lob the advancing Clancy, with the ball bouncing into the net despite an effort from Pallister to rectify the error.

York also survived a late scare with five minutes of normal time left to play as centre-back Ryan Perkin, who had been excellent throughout, headed inches wide from a corner.

But Flanagan might have still settled matters on 90 minutes when he shot from an angle just inside the right-hand side of the penalty box, but his shot was tipped away by Moore.

The Huntington forward would take centre stage, though, during the next half-hour of action and, 11 minutes into extra-time, he fired a diagonal drive into the far corner of the net after being sent clear through the right channel by Jake Duckworth.

Cameron Mulhearn, Duckwoth and Flanagan were then all prominent before the sides switched ends again.

Two minutes into the second period of extra-time, Flanagan claimed his next goal, making a great run off the Kent central defenders after being spotted by Sanderson, who played a perfect pass between both central defenders for the marksman to take the ball in his stride and run on towards an outrushing Moore before calmly slotting the ball past him.

The match ball was Flanagan’s meanwhile, on 117 minutes when the YMEL outfit were awarded a free kick 25 yards from the Kent goal and level with the left-hand post.

Flanagan subsequently stepped up and placed an unstoppable strike into the top right-hand corner would have tested the most skilled goalkeeper at any level of the game.

Unsurprisingly, for his goalscoring heroics, the man-of-the-match medals went to Flanagan and Perkin for Kent.

Pallister and Holding were both in contention, however, for York, following solid displays at the other end of the pitch.

On the side’s success, delighted league vice-president Bill Pearce said: “To say this is a remarkable achievement is an understatement. When you consider the leagues we have beaten along the way and look at the catchment area that they have to select players from compared to York, then we have created something huge for our local league.

“We would also like to thank Harrogate Town Football Club and, in particular, Ben Sadler for their help in staging the last three games. Without them, we’d have been forced to play our games away or even forfeited, as grounds near and in York at step six level or above were unavailable.”