St Bede's have stopped their headlong plunge towards relegation in the Yorkshire Amateur League Senior B Division.

They defeated Stanningley Old Boys Reserves 3-2 in midweek, with Tahir Akram (2) and Gary Litvinov finding the back of the net.

Bede's then needed a point to guarantee their safety and achieved it with a 3-3 home draw against Modernians on Saturday.

However, the game started disastrously for the hosts, who were 2-0 down after 20 minutes.

But an inner strength enabled them to restore parity, courtesy of a double for the in-form Litvinov, although Mods went 3-2 ahead 3-2 before the interval, their goals coming from leading scorer Andy Atkins, Daniel Jamieson and Ben Bowman.

It looked as though Bede's had to look at the results of clubs around them to secure their Senior B future but in the 88th minute Steven Drake was fouled in the box and Chris Gauci showed his mettle by converting the penalty to give them the point they needed.

Farsley Celtic Juniors not only clinched promotion from Division One but also won the championship, to the delight of management duo Barry and Adam Thirsk, after a 3-1 home win over Huddersfield Amateur Reserves.

Month by month Celtic Juniors have been playing catch up with local rivals Farnley Sports, with the latter 14 points ahead at one stage, but the Juniors did have five games in hand.

In March, Celtic lost to Farnley Sports 6-1, at which point only Farsley believed they could take the title.

That belief was justified as they won their last seven matches, scoring 36 goals and conceding only two.

They started their game on Saturday knowing that only a win would be good enough and, when Chris Brough put Huddersfield Amateur ahead after three minutes they knew they were in for a battle.

After 15 minutes, Celtic drew level and two quick goals before the interval proved decisive as Farsley tightened the reins in the second half to compete a memorable victory, with goals from Luke Gordon, leading scorer Si McQuiston (he now has 23 league goals) and James Kasher.

AFC Heckmondwike consolidated third place with a hard-earned 2-2 draw at rapidly-improving St Nicholas.

AFC twice held the lead and twice gave it away, with their scorers being Elliott Williams and Dan Walker.

The match-up between seventh-placed St Bede's Reserves and sixth-placed Amaranth was as close as expected in Division Two, with St Bede's winning 2-1 - a welcome change after four straight away defeats.

Both goals were netted by the clinical Jerome Yewdall, who finished his first season at this level on 19 goals, with eight goals coming in his last six games.

Gildersome Spurs Old Boys Thirds, who were beaten 3-1 at Old Modernians Reserves, managed to avoid relegation thnaks to a couple of late wins. With nothing at stake, Josh Sheldrake got their goal.

Grangefield Old Boys Reserves finished in third place in Division Three - an outstanding effort - but their final match was anti-climactic as they lost 3-2 at home to the enigmatic Ealandians Reserves.

The Old Boys had Jack Hill on target in the first hald but changed ends 2-1 behind. They levelled through Kristian Dacre but Ealandians Reserves pulled out the stops to triumph.

Gildersome Spurs Old Boys clinched the Peter Cookson Senior A Division title in midweek thanks to a 4-2 victory over long-time rivals Stanningley Old Boys 4-2 in what was a major moment for manager Andy Scott.

Spurs' goals came from Matty Jackson (2), Matty Moon and Steve Wales as Barrie Frankland landed a double for Stanningley.

The pressure was therefore off for Saturday's visit to Bramley Juniors, Gildersome winning 3-1 against a team that needed a 4-0 victory to stave off demotion. 

Bramley had a player sent off in the first three minutes for dangerous play, with the half lit up only once when Dave Denison neatly controlled the ball and shot almost in one movement from 20 yards to open the scoring for the visitors.

For good measure, Steve Wales added a second before the interval. Bramley reduced the arrears to 2-1 but that joy was short-lived with young Connor Firth coming on as a substitute and climaxing his day by converting a cross-cum-shot from Lee Thrush to make the final score 3-1.

Relegated Bramley could be seriously considering their Yorkshire Amateur League future after a second player was dismissed.