Rivals ready for Charity Cup shootout

Flashback...Joker celebrate their last Rotherham Charity Cup win in 2013.

And their Rotherham Charity Cup final opponents Wombwell Main will be aiming to bridge a gap of more than 100 years — the last time their name was on the prestigious cup.

The pair meet at the AESSEAL New York Stadium, kick-off 7pm.

Since Sunday teams started entering the competition 20 years ago, Joker have won it just twice and will hope there is an omen this time.

Their first win was in 2008; their next win was five years later and this one comes five years after that, although they have been runners-up once since that 2013 triumph.

Wombwell Main returned to the competition this season more than a century after victory in successive years.

They won it in 1906 and 1907 but stopped entering not long afterwards. In that 1906 season they also won the Mexborough Montagu Cup and the Barnsley Beckett Hospital Cup, a treble only ever achieved by them and they entered all three competitions this season.

Joker's Adam Houghton and Richard Patterson celebrate a goal in the final against Keppel five years ago.

Joker have already reached one final, the Sheffield Sunday Senior Cup Final (they are the holders), beating Wombwell Main's Barnsley Sunday League team 3-2 in a thrilling semi-final.

Tonight's Wombwell team is from the County Senior League but includes some members of their Sunday side. Intriguingly, many of them were in the Houghton Main team which beat Joker in last year's Montagu Cup Final.

This is the only local football final at the Aesseal New York Stadium this season due to the UEFA U17 Championships and Charity Cup chairman Steve Mosby has expressed the competition's deep gratitude to Rotherham United for their co-operation, in turn boosting the fund-raising for local charities.

With the prestigious UEFA tournament coming up, protection of the pitch is extremely important and Steve said they will operate strict adherence to Rotherham United FC's wishes that no one other than teams, officials and walkout mascots, will be allowed on the pitch at any time.

There will be extra-time and penalties if required.

See Friday's Advertiser for a report and pictures.