Intermediate Cup Quarter-Finals

Fox & Hounds’ impressive season continued on Sunday after a 3-1 home victory over Meriden, a team from the division bellow, made it 14 straight wins in all competitions.

Indeed, their only defeat in this campaign came on October 2 to Evergreen in the Challenge Cup, the team they will now face in the semi-finals of this competition.

Fox’s opponents from the lower half of Division Three gave a strong account of themselves and went ahead midway through the first half when a lovely through ball from Carl Giacone set up Ben Dunton to fire home from the edge of the box.

It was a deserved advantage they held into the second half when Ciaran Walsh slotted past the keeper from close range. Michael Edwards then put Fox in front with a toe poke from inside the six-yard box and Dave Morrish sealed the semi-final spot after dispatching a penalty in the final minute.

Third Division Tudor Athletic beat Second Division strugglers Oxhey Rangers 2-1, with Gary Wicks notching a brace for the victors and Dan Pippin getting Rangers’ consolation.

Tudor will face Langleybury Cricket Club in their semi-final.

President’s Cup Quarter-Finals

St Josephs were made to fight all the way by First Division Colne Valley before winning 3-0.

Despite once again only being able to field the bare 11 players, Valley made it difficult for the visitors. But they went behind on the stroke of half-time, before two goals in the final ten minutes wrapped up the win for St Josephs. Lawrence Olorunfemi scored a brace and Roy Byron netted the other.

Old Danes Athletic won their all-First Division tie with AFC Oddfellows 2-1 through goals from Tom Coles and Colin Spooner, while Mikey O'Connor replied.

Old Danes now face St Josephs in the last four.

The Premier Division’s top two both enjoyed high-scoring wins.

Oakview saw off fellow top-flight side Old Fullerians 12-2 as Luke Beardsworth led the way with four goals and Tom Inch also weighed in with a hat-trick. Owen Deamer was on target twice and there were singles from Simeon Armstrong, Antony Shepherd and Wayne Gladdy. Chris Munroe and Sam Parker netted for Fullerians.

Reed Rangers overcame a potential banana skin in First Division leaders West Herts, winning 6-1.

Nathan Singh put Reed ahead after 13 minutes and they soon doubled the lead through a John Smith penalty. Roger Lake headed West Herts' goal before Chris Blunden scored on the stroke of half-time.

Despite being reduced to ten men early in the second half when Smith was dismissed for a dangerous tackle, Reed went onto add three further goals as Blunden completed his hat-trick and Jamie Speer also scored.

Reed and Oakview will now go head-to-head in the semi-final having also drawn each other in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup.

Premier Division

The battle of the bottom two saw Met Police Bushey easily beat Green Dragon 4-0 and inflict an 11th straight league defeat of the season on their opponents. Dale Jenkins, Dan Branch, Ashley Shanahan and Jamie Pickering scored the goals.

Chorleywood Club moved to within two points of Rickmansworth Town in the table after beating them 2-1. H. Brock’s goal for the home team was outweighed by efforts from Andrew Rockett and Nick Holden.

Division One

The sole First Division game saw RD beat bottom-placed Croxley Community Centre 6-1. Elliot Myrants-Wilson and Adam De Swarte both struck twice with Jake Levy and Al Hammouda also on the scoresheet. Jordan Sterling replied for Croxley.

Division Two

With Fox & Hounds in cup action, Evergreen missed a great chance to cut the lead at the top of the table as they were held to that rare outcome in Sunday football, a goalless draw, by a determined Compasses North team, who now have two wins and a draw from their last three league games.

Evergreen’s failure to win means Langleybury Cricket Club are in second place, some eight points behind Fox having played the same number of games.

Langleybury beat Cassiobury Rangers 4-2 as Jamie Madden scored twice with Robbie Edgar and Nathan Pooley also netting. Ryan Tarleton and Callum Woolnough replied for mid-table Rangers.

Bedmond gained a vital 2-0 home win over second-bottom Bricketwood Social to open up a gap of four points between them and their opponents.

With the match only 20 minutes old, both Bedmond's centre backs had to be replaced after a nasty clash of heads that saw Harry Murray in hospital with a broken nose and a number of stitches.

But the changes didn't knock Bedmond off their game and they went ahead shortly after the match restarted when Clement Asante was brought down in the penalty area and Jordan Davies converted the penalty.

He then added a second ten minutes later after weaving his way through the defence and lifting the ball over the keeper for what proved to be the final goal of the game.

Rickmansworth Athletic beat Rifle Volunteer Reserves 3-2. Jamie Exley scored twice and Ionut Nedelea once for the visitors, with Dan Bourne and James Farrell on target for the home side.

Division Three

Sun Postal Sports have their first league win of the season on the board after beating the side directly above them in the table, Green Dragon Reserves, 8-3 to give them real hope of not finishing bottom of the pile.

Ben Williams led the way for Sun with a hat-trick, Romayna Thomas and Jerome Driscoll both got two goals each and Bradley James completed his side’s tally. Jack Lumsden (2) and Alfie Palmer responded for Dragon.

Bell Rangers got the better of Hertsmere 3-2 to stay in third place in the table behind Ripstone and Tudor Athletic, but the top three are now only separated by a single point.

Rangers opened the scoring through George Kus’ half-volley but their opponents drew level with a tidy finish from Brandon Green following a 30th minute free-kick.

Hertsmere took the lead 15 minutes into the second half through Callum Spalding after a corner. But the game was not over and Bell drew level five minutes later when Callum O'Connor weaved past two defenders before cutting the ball back to Mark Hansard, who scored with a side-footed finish into the top corner from 15 yards.

The Bell winner came with ten minutes left when Matt Owens’ inswinging corner was met by the head of Jamie Calvin at the front post.

The mid-table game between Woodlands United and Revolution ended in a 2-1 home win; Ricky Fletcher scoring twice for Woodlands and Paul Shelock for their opponents.

Division Four

FC Woodside moved into second place in the table with a John Croft goal enough to beat second-bottom Woodlands Laurels.

Third-placed Bushey Rangers convincingly saw off Railway Arms 8-1 after Stephen King and George Davies both scored twice with Lewis Yates, Harrison Bath, Charlie Keeble and Sean Grennan also getting in on the act. Shaun Marshall netted Railway’s consolation.

A point was not really good enough for either AFC Green Machine or Hertfordshire Lions as they drew 1-1.

Greg Springal’s 23rd goal of the season looked to have won the points for Lions but Darryl Robertson equalised with the last kick of the game.

Inter beat Roundbush 3-0 thanks to efforts from Alex Hayward, Chris Stead and Dayo Akinlabi.

Division Five

It was a good morning for both Batchworth teams as they both recorded vital wins.

The top-of-the-table game between pre-match leaders AC Little Silhouette of Milan and third-placed AFC Batchworth saw the visitors pick up the three points following a 2-1 win.

Joe Brown was the star man for AFC as he beat three players to set up Joe Wheeler’s opener before scoring himself with a back-post header to put his side two ahead at the break.

Zach Crukshank pulled a goal back for AC but despite heavy pressure they couldn’t force an equaliser.

Batchworth have a first league win of the season following a 3-0 home victory over bottom-placed Chess United.

All the goals came in the first half as Charlie Kimpton struck with a double and Michael Bright netted the other.

The Tree returned to the top of the table with a seventh straight league win after defeating P&P Social 6-1.

Adam Cadmore scored four and Andy Pryor two with Reece Davies getting the P&P goal.