SATURDAY’S HEADLINES
London Colney, Dunstable Town and Hillingdon Borough all registered their first three point hauls of the new campaign. Pitsyone & Ivinghoe came out on top in the battle with the two remaining clubs with 100% league records with a late winner against Codicote. The weekend brought about 92 goals from the 25 games (an average of 3.68 per game) with Jake Anthony (Harpenden Town), George Shrieves (Milton Keynes Irish), Jamie Cerminara (Ampthill Town) and Maximillian Ryan (Stotfold) all netted hat-tricks.
Saturday Stats: 25 games played of which 12 were home wins, 9 were away wins and 4 draws.
100% league record to date: Pitstone & Ivinghoe.
Saturday’s Highest Attendances: 315 Leighton Town v Leverstock Green, 145 Harefield United v Biggleswade United and 137 Harpenden Town v Dunstable Town.
Season’s Highest Attendances to date (Premier Division Clubs): 320 Leighton Town v Leiston (FA Cup), 320 Leighton Town v Biggleswade United and 315 Leighton Town v Leverstock Green.
Season’s Highest Attendances to date (Division One Clubs): 315 New Salamis v West Essex (FA Cup), 285 Winslow United v Newport Pagnell Town (FA Cup) and 236 New Salamis v Colney Heath (FA Cup).
Season’s Highest Attendances to date (Division Two Clubs): 109 Codicote v Berkhamsted Comrades, 103 Codicote v New Bradwell St Peter and 92 Codicote v Pitstone & Ivinghoe.
Saturday 24th October
PREMIER DIVISION
Morning leaders Eynesbury Rovers were surprisingly beaten at home by lowly North Greenford United (report on this appears later in these ramblings), however they remain top on goal difference as Colney Heath had to settle for a point after a 1-1 draw at Potton United with third placed Harefield United also stumbling with a 2-5 home defeat by Biggleswade United who moved up to third as a result of their fine win on the road. At the bottom London Colney recorded their first league win of the campaign with a 2-0 success against visiting Crawley Green to move off the bottom. Tring Athletic dropped to the foot of the table after going down by the odd goal in three against visiting Oxhey Jets while Dunstable Town also picked up their first league win of the season in a nine goal thriller at Harpenden Town the Bedfordshire club edging it 5-4. Elsewhere Leighton Town continued their climb up the table with a solitary goal success at home against Leverstock Green while Arlesey Town enjoyed a 3-1 success against visiting Wembley. Elsewhere Edgware Town edged out visiting Baldock Town while it was honours even as Broadfields United were held to a 1-1 draw by Aylesbury Vale Dynamos. Full results and goalscorers (where known) are listed below.
3-1 Arlesey Town v Wembley (Miller [2], Carvalho) / (Walters) Attendance: 83
1-1 Broadfields United v Aylesbury Vale Dynamos (Smith) / (Lambeth [pen]) Attendance: 86
2-1 Edgware Town v Baldock Town (Onabolu, Issa) / (Rowland) Attendance: 100
0-1 Eynesbury Rovers v North Greenford United (Simpson) Attendance: 118
2-5 Harefield United v Biggleswade United (Farhall, Dobbs) / (Black [2], Hunt, Flanagan, Clayton) Attendance: 145
4-5 Harpenden Town v Dunstable Town (Anthony [3] [1 pen], Rickman) / (Stapleton [2], Twelves, Hankins, Pedro) Attendance: 137
1-0 Leighton Town v Leverstock Green (McClelland) Attendance: 315
2-0 London Colney v Crawley Green (Conlch, King) Attendance: 45
1-1 Potton United v Colney Heath (Camara) / (Lovell) Attendance: 127
1-2 Tring Athletic v Oxhey Jets (Naylor) / (Bircham, Brennan) Attendance: 96
DIVISION ONE
Morning leaders Buckingham Athletic suffered their second league defeat of the season when going down 2-5 at St Panteleimon, a result which moved the hosts into fifth spot. Replacing Buckingham Athletic at the top are Shefford Town & Campton who saw off the challenge of visiting Rayners Lane by two goals to nil. Milton Keynes Irish climbed into third place with an emphatic 6-1 win at Enfield Borough while in the El Jungle battle London Lions moved into an automatic promotion place with a hard fought 2-1 win over London Tigers. At the bottom there was a big win for Hillingdon Borough, the 1-0 success at Amersham Town was the first points of the season for the visitors and moved them off the bottom with Tigers replacing them. Elsewhere Stotfold enjoyed a 4-1 home success against Winslow United while Ampthill Town scored five without reply at lowly Park View. The day’s other action saw Bedford being held 1-1 at home by visiting New Salamis. Full results and goalscorers are listed below.
0-1 Amersham Town v Hillingdon Borough (Medeiros da Silva [pen]) Attendance: 43
1-1 Bedford v New Salamis (Sole) / (Georgiou) Attendance: 45
1-6 Enfield Borough v Milton Keynes Irish FC (Queta) / (G Shrieves [3], Spence [2], Dummett) Attendance: 20
2-1 London Lions v London Tigers (Goldberg, Yoane (og)) / (Faulder) Attendance: 67
0-5 Park View v Ampthill Town (Cerminara [3], Cullen, Makaza) Attendance: 0 (Behind Closed Doors)
2-0 Shefford Town & Campton v Rayners Lane (McNamara, Day) Attendance: 81
4-1 Stotfold v Winslow United (Ryan [3], Hussey (og)) / (A King) Attendance: 118
5-2 St Panteleimon v Buckingham Athletic (Bin-Semakula, Gilmaney, Massay, Monti, Tajbakhsh) / (Tappin, James) Attendance: 25
DIVISION TWO
The big game of the day saw the only two clubs with 100% take to the field in Hertfordshire, morning leaders Codicote welcoming third place Pitstone & Ivinghoe and as expected it was no quarter given with the defences coming out on top and it looked likely to end in a stalemate until the final minute when Albie Hall broke the deadlock for the visitors. The defeat for the morning leaders allowed second place Old Bradwell United to move to the summit if they could win on their travels at bottom club The 61FC (Luton), the first period saw the hosts stubborn display rewarded and they enjoyed their half time cuppa with the score at 0-0, however it was a different story after the interval as the visitors ran in five unanswered goals to go a point clear at the top of the standings. Fourth placed Buckingham United found themselves two goals down at the break at home against Totternhoe but a second half fightback saw them snatch a share of the spoils to remain fourth. At the other end of the table New Bradwell St Peter boosted their hopes with a 3-1 home success against Tring Corinthians AFC. Elsewhere both Berkhamsted Raiders and Berkhamsted Comrades both enjoyed home wins, Raiders defeating Sarratt 5-0 while Comrades were 2-0 winners against Bovingdon, the visitors playing their first game in two weeks due to Covid. The day’s other action saw Aston Clinton edge out MK Gallacticos by the odd goal in five. Full results and goalscorers listed below.
3-2 Aston Clinton v MK Gallacticos (Collins, Russell, Seaton [pen]) / (Daminabo, Smith) Attendance: 35
2-0 Berkhamsted Comrades v Bovingdon (Hemington, Abrey) Attendance: 60
5-0 Berkhamsted Raiders v Sarratt (Boswell [2] [1 pen], Shaw, Clark, Williams) Attendance: 35
2-2 Buckingham United v Totternhoe (Walton, Ginger [pen]) / (Dem, Butler) Attendance: 46
0-1 Codicote v Pitstone & Ivinghoe (Hall) Attendance: 92
3-1 New Bradwell St Peter v Tring Corinthians AFC (Bosoka, Kelsey. Davey) / (T Bennett) Attendance: 47
0-5 The 61FC (Luton) v Old Bradwell United (Green [2], Darryl Smith, Ennis, Anthonio-Forde) Attendance: 21
AND FINALLY
The result of this week’s Team of the Day Poll with 227 votes cast is:-
Dunstable Town 43.2%
North Greenford United 31.3%
Pitstone & Ivinghoe 16.3%
Stotfold 9.3%
Don’t forget that every Sunday afternoon the Non-League Show on Three Counties Radio (Herts, Beds & Bucks), a show all about local non-league football. The popular show presented by Ollie Bayliss has been increased to two hours each week and moves to a new day and time, every Sunday afternoon from 2.00pm – 4.00pm and is the perfect opportunity to catch up with our local non-league scene at all levels.
For those who missed it then you can catch up here:-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08v48gz
The Twittersphere was in full swing this weekend with some gems coming from Tring Athletic, ‘Gazebo stops play, a visitor from Tring Rugby next door, at least its sponsored by Home Office, Tring’ and another from their Twitter reporter, ‘no further details at present as I am trying to find the ball from the last effort’. Also catching my eye was this one from James Spring at Weymouth, ‘Match delayed as the referee needs to move his car, You just can’t beat non-league football’ and finally Mike Motson the new tweeter for Aylesbury Vale Dynamos came up with these two delights, ‘Not a lot to tweet so far’ and ‘might go Nandos’.
Finally Dave Henman sends this report from Eynesbury Rovers v North Greenford United.
I turned up at this game expecting a relatively easy home win, but how wrong I was! Make no mistake this was not a fluke result. NGU were fully deserving the 3 points. Maybe Eynesbury were over confident after thrashing Dunstable 6-1 away in midweek, but whatever the reason they were somewhat sluggish out of the traps. Whilst they passed around the ball around neatly enough they weren’t creating any space, or chances, and at times over elaborated, and held onto the ball for too long. As such gradually NGU settled into the game. When the goal arrived after 28 minutes it was an excellent quick break. The ball was played out of defence to the impressive number eleven (Kai Brosnan) who showed a clean pair of heels to the chasing Eynesbury defence, before slipping the ball to the man mountain of a centre-forward (Melford Simpson) who controlled the ball well, before slipping the ball home from about 10 yards just inside the post where custodian Shay Griffiths was unable to reach it. Despite this set back Eynesbury never came to life until 5 minutes before the break. The second half must’ve produced a well deserved half time dressing down as the hosts really upped their game, with NGU restricted to occasional quick breaks, which could’ve produced another goal. Despite Eynesbury’s best efforts, including several goal line clearances, they couldn’t penetrate the over-worked NGU defence where centre back Ashley Harrack impressed. When the defence was breached keeper, and captain, Sam House, despite being small in statue prevented the equaliser which we all thought was coming. I thought the homesters deserved something for their second half efforts but can’t deny NGU their victory for the second half backs to the wall display. Eynesbury’s supporters took the defeat well and were complimentary to the NGU display. The covid precautions Eynesbury made were excellent, and possibly the best I’ve seen this season, so if you don’t feel safe there then you never will! Last mention must go to secretary Cathy Watts who continued an age old tradition by baking cakes for home and visiting officials as well as the normal hot drinks. Much appreciated on a windy wet day Cathy. Cheers!