Eric Hand Challenge Cup First Round

The opening round of the league’s premier cup competition saw three of the highest ranked sides from Division One fall at the first hurdle to teams from lower down the ladder.

Division Four new boys Hews, who look to have assembled an experienced side, knocked out FC Woodside 3-2.

Woodside are a successful cup side, having won a trophy and reached another final in the last two seasons, but on Sunday they came off second best despite taking an early lead when Donovan Lewis latched on to a through ball and toe-poked home.

Hews soon levelled through Joe Manfredini and then went on to take the upper hand thanks to a goal from Nathan Pooley.

Lewis grabbed his second goal of the game to equalise in the second half when he followed up an earlier effort for a simple tap-in.

Having got themselves back into the tie, Woodside were forced to play the remainder of the tie with 10 men when centre-back Barry Thorne was taken off with a suspected broken hand.

Soon after Luke Pochetty thumped the ball home to restore Hews’ advantage, but their opponents almost took the game to extra-time when Lewis' last-minute shot came back off the post.

Croxley were also knocked out in the first round following a 3-2 defeat at home to NW FC.

Two goals from Aaron Farrell were not enough to prevent the upset with Haseeb Khan, Nathan Jeffs and Akeel Ahmed scoring for the visitors.

The same scoreline also saw Third Division Woodlands beat Tudor Athletic, Joe Ray with a double and one from Liam Laverick. Gary Coyle got both of the Tudor goals.

The two other First Division sides in first round action did make it through by the odd goal.

Cassiobury Rangers edged past Second Division Sun Regent Sports 4-3 after producing a superb comeback from 3-0 down at the break.

Goals in the opening 45 minutes from Lee Everett, Kenny Aliki and Aarron Crawford looked to have given the home side an impossible mountain to climb, but climb it they did.

Cassiobury started on the front foot after the restart and made their positivity pay with a strike from Jordan Robertson, rifling into the top corner after good work from Joe Mortimer.

Mortimer then cut the lead further when he nipped in and cut out a weak back pass to finish.

With the game now clearly swinging in favour of Cassiobury, Mehmet Maden equalised when he sprung the offside trap and slotted home from a Conor Callanan through ball.

Cassiobury completed the comeback with a last-minute penalty, dispatched into the top corner by Mortimer for his second of the game.

Glenn Thompson scored the only goal as Langleybury CC beat Third Division ACS Milan.

The biggest first round winners were Second Division Bushey Rangers who put six unanswered goals past Third Division Chess United through James Henney, Taylor Cobb, George Davies, Lewis Yates, Johnny Vasey and Ronnie Yervey.

AFC Leavesden put five past Batchworth in the all-Third Division tie, Alex Burch with a hat-trick and a goal each for Tom Bourke and Alex Diaz.

The all-Second Division game between AFC Green Machine and Northwood saw the visitors win through 3-2, Lee Newman, Shaun Wheeler and Harry Lord with the goals, with Tom Oliver and Callum Jones replying for AFC.

Second Division Ardent and Fourth Division Skyline couldn’t be separated after 120 minutes of football resulted in a 0-0 draw, but it was Ardent who prevailed 5-4 on penalties.

The Victoria put out Third Division Oxhey Athletic 3-1, Dan Bourne with two goals and one from Vinny Harkin, with Charlie Cole replying.

Goals from Robert Benson and Tim Wilson were enough for Ripstone to beat SOCA 2-0, while Ricky AFC beat Hertfordshire Harriers 3-0 through Mike McCourt’s brace and Shane Kitts' single,

Croxley RBL beat Sun Postal Sports 3-1 through Darren Buckingham, Chris Gourley and Ollie Donohoe, with Ben Dunton replying.

Nathan Khider and Ben Pearcey were on target as Inter knocked out fellow Third Division side Oxhey Rangers 2-1. Jack Walsh got the Rangers reply.

Terry Devereux President’s Cup Group A

St Josephs got off to a winning start in the competition now solely for Premier Division clubs, beating Fox & Hounds 5-2 thanks to Anton Collins’ brace and one each for Harry Seabrook, Robbie Totcher and Max Roth.

Substitute Alex Witham netted twice after coming on to reduce St Josephs' lead to 3-2 at one point.

The other game in the group saw Rickmansworth Town and Old Danes Athletic take a point each after a 2-2 draw, although Danes would be disappointed after letting a 2-0 lead slip late on.

Tom Coles gave them the lead in the first minute with a long-range lob after spotting the keeper off his line, with Ali Shale doubling the advantage eight minutes before the break with a curling effort from the edge of the box.

Those goals looked like being enough but an effort from B. Adams six minutes from the end inspired the home side and they equalised three minutes later through E.Lamboh.

Terry Devereux President’s Cup Group B

Reed Rangers never looked back after Nick Kerley gave them an eighth-minute lead, sweeping aside Evergreen 6-1.

The game was effectively over after only 12 minutes following two goals in a minute, with Kerley curling home a free-kick to double his tally.

Straight from the restart Kerley picked up the ball just inside Evergreen half and unleashed a 40-yard shot to leave the keeper with no chance to complete his hat-trick in style.

It was 4-0 by half-time as a Louis Bircham free-kick set up John Smith to slot home.

The second period started as the first had finished with Ollie Salami setting up Kerley for his fourth of the game five minutes into the half.

Evergreen did manage to score a consolation goal through Tom Verbena, but Smith completed the scoring with his second 15 minutes from time.

Winners for the past two seasons Oakview were given a fight by Rifle Volunteer before prevailing 4-2.

Rifle have a new-look side this season and gave six players their debuts, but the only goal in the first half came when former Volunteer winger Harry West crossed to Lee Armitt to finish past keeper Tony Cornick.

The game looked over when Oakview doubled their lead early in the second half with a powerful free-kick from Lewis Putman, but within a minute Rifle were back in it through a Gary Froy set piece.

Oakview restored their two-goal lead again as Armitt powered past the defence and squared for Putman to tap in.

Rifle pulled another back as Ben Goode brought the ball down on his chest and swivelled to finish in style, but it fell to Armitt to complete the scoring with 15 minutes remaining.

Old Fullerians also got off to a winning start as they edged out West Herts 3-2.

Fullers took the lead in the first half when a Craig Totton free-kick was volleyed home by Stephen Pich.

West Herts levelled from a Jeremy Audic penalty, but their opponents were back in front just before the interval when a well-worked move was finished off by Warren Tarney.

Darren McArthur equalised for the Stags for a second time when a corner wasn’t cleared, but a scrambled own goal in the last minute was enough for Fullerians to get the points.

Division One

FC Unicorn are the early pacesetters in Division One following a second straight win, this time 3-1 over Colne Valley.

After a goalless first half Unicorn went ahead when Jamie Calvin played a one-two with Sheldon Berkeley and then slipped the ball through to his teammate who beat Bradley Bonnick at the near post.

Calvin was again the provider 10 minutes later when he skipped past Bonnick’s attempted challenge after the goalkeeper had charged out of his area and cut the ball back for Chrishan Casey to score.

Matt Day pulled a goal back with a close-range header, but Unicorn sealed the win when Luke Peerless hit a driven ball over to the Valley right-back whose header allowed Callum O’Connor to tap home.

AFC Bedmond beat North Watford 2-1 after a hard-fought affair.

Louis Hakner netted his second in as many games following a goalmouth scramble and a long-range effort from midfielder Maz Urgo was just enough to see off the pressure from NWFC in the final 10 minutes after they had pulled a goal back from Shoaib Ali.