Herts Sunday Junior Cup Round Three

The new regionalised format for the Junior Cup is certainly helping the fortunes of the Watford Sunday League clubs with five sides through to the last 16.

The upset of the round came in one of the three all WSL-ties as mid-table Fourth Division side Garston Athletic dumped out previously unbeaten Third Division leaders The Tree 3-2.

The Tree went ahead early on when Marc Brownsell bent the ball into the roof of the net after Garston failed to clear a corner. But despite conceding that early goal Athletic levelled when Antonio Baeta pounced on a defensive mistake and rounded the keeper to slot home.

The tie turned dramatically in Garston’s favour on the stroke of half-time when The Tree had two players sent off, leaving them to play 45 minutes with just nine men.

Nelson Santos scored with a 25-yard effort soon after the restart, but clearly aggrieved over the dismissals, The Tree levelled when Brownsell’s free-kick evaded everyone and bounced into the top corner.

It was The Tree who looked the more likely to win the game, with the Garston defence holding out against an aerial bombardment, but from a rare counter-attack Athletic scored the winner when Beata raced clear and although his initial effort was saved, he tapped home the rebound.

Three of the four other ties saw big wins for WSL sides.

AFC Batchworth beat fellow Fourth Division side Sun Postal Sports 7-1 as Shaun Wheeler and Luke Jerome scored a hat-trick each and Jake Knight netted the other. Ben Williams scored the Sun goal.

Fourth Division Everett also scored seven without reply against Third Division Hertsmere.

In a close first half, the only goal came courtesy of a Barry Mitchell penalty after Mark Hansard was brought down by the keeper.

The second goal came straight from the kick-off at the start of the second period when the ball was rolled back from the centre spot to Alex Gibert, who shot first time from his own half and into the back of the net.

Everett then dominated the rest of the game, with a hat-trick from Mitchell to take his tally to four, while Hansard and Ryan Denham scored the other.

P&P Social defeated former WSL side Woodlands Laurels, who now ply their trade in the Harrow Sunday League, 11-0.

Billy Lobjoit scored five times, Luke Foster added a hat-trick and there was one apiece for Donik Sopa, Aiden Thacker and Charlie Watts.

Two David Smith goals fired Bushey Rangers to a 2-0 away win over GB Precision.

Terry Devereux President’s Cup Round Two

Two of the four ties saw First Division teams put out Premier Division opponents.

Compasses North came from behind to cause a major upset and knock out St Josephs.

After an even first half, with chances for both sides at a premium, St Josephs started the second period the stronger and went ahead after 55 minutes when Tom Twelves scored an own goal with a mis-hit attempted clearance.

But the game turned on its head with two goals in rapid succession.

Compasses levelled with 15 minutes to go  when Mark O’Connor was pulled back in the box, allowing Mick Twelves to slot home the resulting penalty.

Three minutes later, Lamar St Cyr broke in from the left wing and his shot bounced up and into the net.

The Compasses goal led a charmed life in the remaining minutes, but the Premier Division side were unable to capitalise on three good chances.

The second of the upsets came as Evergreen beat Fox & Hounds by a single goal which came in the first half when Tom Verbena gave the keeper no chance with a powerful shot after racing through onto a through ball from Matt Goodchild.

It was more straightforward for both Chorleywood Club and Reed Rangers, the former knocking out North Watford 9-1.

James Roache opened the scoring after 14 minutes and then scored his second just before the half-an-hour mark to put Chorleywood 2-0 up.

North Watford pulled a goal back soon after through Aamer Khan but Michael East then took control of the game and scored the first of his five goals after 40 minutes, quickly following this up with a second two minutes later.

The second half saw East continue his personal scoring onslaught with a 12-minute hat-trick, with Roshan Patel also netting in between those goals.

North Watford should have scored a second goal but Matt Evans saved well from a penalty, while Roache completed his hat-trick six minutes from time.

Reed Rangers beat fellow top flight side Old Danes Athletic 4-1.

Reed took the lead when Bradley Sweeney was put through by Karl Penny, who then get on the scoresheet after being set up by Nathan Singh.

Colin Spooner gave Old Danes hope by scoring just before the break, but Reed made the game safe after the break when John Smith scored from the edge of the box and a fourth followed from George Hobson, who lobbed the keeper from some 35 yards.

Eric Hand Challenge Cup Round Two

The remaining tie saw RD FC beat Green Machine 2-1 to set up a third round clash against Premier Division Chorleywood Club.

Kieran Goldberg scored both of RD’s goals, with Danny Roberts replying.

Premier Division

Oakview have opened up a five-point lead at the top of the table after a last gasp 4-3 win over Rickmansworth Town.

Lewis Putman scored a first-half hat-trick to give his team a 3-1 lead, the Rickmansworth goal coming from Tom Gibson, before two strikes late in the opening period from Dean Mallett and Scott Bailey drew Town level.

The contest looked like ending in a draw until Putman scored his fourth with two minutes remaining.

Old Fullerians moved up into third place after a 6-2 win over West Herts, who remain at the basement.

Fullerians took the lead after just two minutes when a corner was cleared as far as Charlie Munroe, who drilled home from just outside the box, but West Herts equalised through Michael Adeyemi at the back post.

However, the Stags lost their goalkeeper to injury early in the second half, and this along with some ruthless finishing from the visitors allowed them to score five times as Munroe completed his hat-trick, Ryan Woosley scored twice and Sam Parker also netted.

West Herts, who battled until the end, scored the final goal of the game through Roger Lake.

Division One

With second-placed Evergreen and third-placed Compasses North in President’s Cup action, the two sides directly above and below them in the table - Bushey Sports Club and Langleybury CC - could only draw 3-3.

Nathan Pooley and Greg Cook scored to give Langleybury a two-goal first-half lead, but Bushey hit back at the start of the second period through Ricky Weymouth and Dale Jenkins to level.

Langleybury thought they had secured all three points when Matt Honey scored with just three minutes left, only for Bushey to equalise through Joel Shanahan almost straight from the restart.

Croxley have a second league win of the season after a 3-2 victory over FC Unicorn.

Louis Soper gave the nine men of Unicorn the lead with a strike from the edge of the area, but Jack Wilson equalised from close range.

Midway through the second half, Unicorn went ahead for a second time when James Dixon fired home from 25 yards, but Croxley rallied, first through Thomas Hughes heading in the equaliser before Dan Wyatt smashed home the winner five minutes from time.

Colne Valley convincingly saw off Cassiobury Rangers 6-2.

Callum Galvin gave Cassiobury an early lead, but their opponents equalised through Andy McKenzie-Bell's volley.

Chris Blunden put Valley in front just before the break with a close-range finish from Jack Habbijam's cross.

Cassiobury equalised shortly after the restart when Jack Hilburn bundled home a Sam Mortimer corner, but McKenzie-Bell restored the lead with his second from Charlie Benning's cross.

McKenzie-Bell then completed his hat-trick on the hour mark following another Benning free-kick into the box.

Although Valley were reduced to ten men when Benning was shown a second yellow card, Blunden netted his second to extend the lead to 5-2.

Cassiobury also had a player sent off before Mitch Wheatley completed the scoring.

Division Two

FC Woodside remain in second place but are now just two points behind leaders Tudor Athletic, whose game with Bedmond was called off, after they beat Rickmansworth Athletic 3-1.

Nathan Gullen, Joe Fox and Michael Griffin scored for Woodside, with Rob Barron netting the Rickmansworth reply.

Both of the other games in the division finished 3-3.

Ardent missed the chance to cut the gap at the top after their draw with Oxhey Rangers as goals from Charlie Salvage, Lee Spence and Bobby Gurrey were countered by Oxhey’s Steve Bunting, Connor Murphy and Dan Pipin.

Matt Elgey scored a hat-trick for Ripstone but it was not enough for all three points in the game against Woodlands United for whom Craig Hepworth, Lloyd Townsend and Joe Ray were on target.

Division Three

An Aarron Crawford brace and one from Dave Flannery saw Sun Regent Sports beat Bricketwood Social 3-1, Tom Minton netting for the home side.

Calvin Monaghan scored twice as AC Little Silhouette of Milan defeated Revolution 2-0.

Division Four

The top-of-the-table clash saw South Oxhey beat Railway Arms 3-1 and open up an eight-point lead at the summit.

Bradley Bridges, Liam Coles and Will Wilson struck for Oxhey, with Connor Flanagan on target for Railway.

Oxhey Athletic are chasing hard in second place after they beat NW FC 4-1 through Gavin Bowen (2), Jay Jarvis and Abbas Khan.

Batchworth finally have a league win on the board after getting the better of Chess United 4-3.

Connor Graham, with two, and one from Matt Hargreaves were not enough for Chess, who were beaten thanks to two goals from Devante Austin and a penalty each from Charlie Kimpton and Michael Parry.