Herts Sunday Intermediate Cup Round Five

Headstone Athletic followed Tudor Arms into the last eight of the Herts Intermediate Cup but only after they had done it the hard way by coming from behind three times to beat Comet Sports Club 5-4.

Athletic had the worse possible start as they trailed 2-0 after just 20 minutes, but Pete Owen headed in on the stroke of half-time to bring them right back into the tie.

Straight from the kick-off at the start of the second half, Harry Healey scored a fine solo goal to level the scores, only for their opponents to go back in front almost immediately following a goalmouth scramble.

Headstone pulled level once more through Anthony Ball, Comet then took the lead for a third time following another scramble, and that looked to be enough to take them through until a late rally from Athletic.

Dan Page equalised with five minutes remaining following a superb pass from Anthony Ball and with just two minutes to go, Headstone won the tie when Owen scored his second of the game as he headed in a dramatic winner.

Headstone now face a quarter-final away to Queens Head Sandridge while Tudor Arms are at home to Doves United on February 9.

Premier Division

Bovingdon beat Old Danes Athletic 3-2 to secure their third win of the season and move away from the bottom two places in the table.

Goals from Adam Putman, Bradley Davies and Jo Horwood took them seven points clear of Headstone Lions, who are second bottom in the division.

The Old Danes goals came from Ross Bennett and Colin Spooner.

Division One

For a second straight week, Brookside missed the chance to take over at the top of the table for the first time this season as they slumped to another high-scoring defeat, this time 6-3 to Meriden Ballers who have now risen to third.

Jason Gullin’s curling effort gave Meriden the lead after 17 minutes and it was followed by a second goal three minutes later from Tom Dettmer.

Brookside pulled one back from the penalty spot through Barrie Horn, but their opponents then scored a further four goals as Dettmer netted twice more to complete his hat-trick and John Hall and Morgan Charles also notced.

Brookside railed late on despite trailing 6-1, scoring twice through John Armitt .