PICKERING Town's sharper finishing earned them a 3-1 win over Copmanthorpe in the semi-finals of the York FA Senior Minor Cup.

They will meet Rufforth in the final after the village side beat Hamilton Panthers 5-2.

Pickering took the lead on the stroke of half-time through Chris Daniels. Oliver Campbell made it 2-0 with a close-range effort and skipper Paul Grayson added the third after a corner.

Joe Carter pulled a goal back for Copmanthorpe, who missed a few chances later in the game.

Rufforth were sent on their way to victory with Liam Stilgoe's tenth-minute 20-yard volley and went 3-0 up with Arthur Broadbent and Steven Gillick on target.

Panthers roared back with goals by Jack Aarron and Liam Cahill but Broadbent got his second after good work by Stilgoe and Anthony Evans rounded off the scoring.

Clifton proved too strong for White Swan Bubwith in their Sunday Afternoon Cup clash, finishing 8-1 winners to book a final slot against St John's College.

A penalty by goalkeeper Mark Phillips after 15 minutes gave Clifton the lead and within three minutes Kevin Butler had made it 3-0.

Butler completed his hat-trick and there were further goals from Paul Beddow, Chris Paxton, Matthew Harttas and Dale Phillips for Clifton. Andrew Smith got White Swan's consolation.

St John's College came from 2-0 down to beat AV Saville 3-2. A Carl O'Brien 20-yard volley and a Simon Collins lob put Saville in control but the students hit back on the hour with an Andy Raw header from a corner.

Six minutes later Raw produced a carbon-copy goal and the College clinched victory ten minutes from the end when Paul Thompson scored after an error in the Saville defence.

Updated: 09:54 Thursday, April 01, 2004