WEEK 1 REVIEW: Season gets underway with glut of goals

The new football season got underway on Saturday afternoon under cloudy skies with a near full fixture list to open the campaign. As it seems with all opening day fixtures nowadays, a goal glut saw 75 goals scored across the four divisions.

Premier Division

The reigning Premier Division champions, Chingford Athletic, got their season off to the perfect start with a 5-0 win over LOASS courtesy of goals from Tom Kavanagh, Gary Murray, David Livie, Anton Trice and Charlie Heatley.

There was also a big opening day win for new side, United London, who saw off fellow new side Old Esthameians by the same scoreline winning 5-0 with a pair of braces from Jermeel Jno-Baptiste and Brandon McCarthy while Aboubakar Kone rounded off the scoring.

There was also a win for the last year’s runners-up, Jolof Sports Club, who beat London Falcons 2-1 thanks for goals from Jesus Paniagua and Modou Jammeh.

Grove United also opened with a win on their Premier Division debut with a 4-0 win away at Rainham Working Mens Club. John Hughes needed a brace with Ben Lowes and Will Haynes completing the scoring to take maximum points back to Hainault.

Rounding off the Premier Division action, Blue Marlin continued where they left off last season with a narrow 1-0 victory over the newly formed Lopes Tavares London as Luke Thomas-Arayo scored the all-important goal to set up their victory.

Division One

Last season’s runners-up Three Colts opened their campaign with a 6-3 win over local rivals and new recruits, East Ham International. Callum Kennedy was the hero with a quartet of strikes with debutant Julian Bryant also netting. In reply for East Ham, Terrence De Souza, Amal Kakumanu and Harry Burgess were the men on target in an exciting game for the neutral.

New side Sporting Hackney Reserves and St Johns Deaf shared the points in a 2-2 draw at the Marshes as Huseyin Er and Marios Costi found the back of the net for St Johns to take a point home.

Singh Sabha Barking made a winning start to their debut season in Division One as they beat West Essex Reserves 5-3 at Newbury Park to go second in the table after the first round of games.

Division Two

Ryan Reserves have set the early pace in Division Two after a 6-1 opening day win over Chigwell Rovers in a battle of the new sides. Ricky White will take the plaudits for his hat-trick with Joe Grimmer, Ryan Williams and Matthew Scarsbrook also finding the net to cancel out a Chigwell goal from Will Osmond.

Chingford Athletic Reserves were victorious in the Chingford derby with a 5-1 win against Chingford Harriers to second in the table. Their goals were scored by Patryk Sienkiewicz, Michael Boahene, Josh Trainor, Harry Miller and Kahlil Kirwan-Meade while Nick Shawyer was on target with Harriers’ consolation goal.

The points were shared between new side, Lymore Gardens, and Inter Plaistow in a 1-1 draw. Michael Romeo takes the honours of being Lymore’s first league goal scorer while Samuel Garrett is no stranger to finding the back of the net for Plaistow as he opened his account for the season with their goal.

Division Three

Brentwood United Reserves are top of Division Three after the first round of matches after a 4-2 win over fellow new side, Wanstead Warriors. William Cox bagged himself a double with Chris Pugh and Alfie Wiseman goals cancelling out Wanstead strikes by Ryan Hart and Edward O’Brian.

Flyers are second after they won 3-1 on the opening day against newly formed, Royal Forest, as Tyler Rothan had a dream league debut by scoring a hat-trick to grab all three points for his side.

An entertaining game between two new sides to the league at Newbury Park saw Old Esthameians Reserves face Upminster Reserves with the latter eventually prevailing 3-2 despite goals from Jack Smerdon and Alex Booker for Old E’s.

And rounding off a day full of goals, an exciting six-goal thriller between St Francis Reserves and Kitroom which ended 3-3 as Jack Hall’s brace plus a goal from John Bradley earned the Saints a share of the spoils.