CALVERLEY United made it through to their first final in 18 years thanks to the heroics of keeper Will Grace in a penalty shoot-out.

The Owls came up against fellow Yorkshire Amateur League Premier Division side Athletico in the semi-final of the Bradford FA District Saturday Senior Cup at Thackley’s Dennyfield ground.

A large crowd witnessed a tight affair with little given between two competitive sides.

Calverley started off on the front foot and pressured Athletico from the start, leaving them to rely on the long diagonal ball as the main outlet.

The Owls took advantage of their early foothold, making it 1-0 through Ben Cook after 25 minutes.

He also struck the bar minutes later and a few other half-chances in the box could have seen Calverley go even further ahead.

Athletico had a free header from six yards out but failed to take the opportunity and Calverley were able to hold onto a lead going into the break.

Nerves would have been jittering with only 45 minutes left to shut out the opposition to secure their first final in nearly two decades.

But, Calverley were unable to do it the easy way.

Athletico’s Adeeb Jawad equalised in the 60th minute and no further goals meant it was heading for penalties.

The shoot-out was accompanied by the patter of a drum from the Athletico support, but it did not stop a number of well-taken strikes from the spot.

Calverley were taking their kicks second and hearts may have been in mouths when Matthew Wilson stepped up, needing to score to make it 5-5 and take the shoot-out to sudden death.

The Owls’ leading scorer in the league has already missed a penalty this season, but he made no mistake this time.

With the dreaded sudden-death underway, Joel Binns followed up a successful Athletico spot-kick to make it 6-6.

Step forward Calverley keeper Grace, who leapt to his right at full stretch to save what was a strong penalty and give the Owls the chance for glory after the first missed kick of the shoot-out.

Will Barker did the business, sending the Calverley players into euphoria.

The side will meet Field from the West Yorkshire League in the final of the cup.

Field also reached the showpiece via penalties against Salts.