WEEK 20 REVIEW: Round-up of Saturday's league and cup action

FENTON CUP

The final quarter-final place in this season’s Fenton Cup competition was settled on Saturday as Chingford Athletic’s stranglehold on the competition finally came to end as their reserves took on Premier Division side, Jolof Sports. Title chasing Jolof returned home from Waltham Abbey with a 4-0 win under their belts as they secured safe passage to the quarter-finals where they now face Docklands Albion in a mouth-watering clash.

DIVISION THREE CUP

In the second of the Division Three Cup first round ties to be played, Chingford Harriers and Kitroom opened their cup quests at Parmiters with the winners booking a quarter-final away at Old Esthameians Reserves. In a tightly contested match, it took just a single goal to separate the sides on the day with Kitroom’s Hoxley Baron getting the crucial goal in the 1-0 win.

DIVISION FOUR CUP

Two more teams entered the fray in the Division Four Cup with local rivals, Debden Park and Avondale Rangers, going head to head in their opening group A encounters. The hosts will have come out of the tie as the happier of the sides as they cruised to a 4-1 despite a Rangers effort from Thomas Jackson-Lyall.

PREMIER DIVISION

The side who made the biggest move in the Premier Division on Saturday were West Essex Reserves who travelled to Newbury Park to face an in-form Old Esthameians outfit. Izunna Ogedi-Uzokwe continued his prowess in front of goal with another for his tally with Callum Bloss also netting to hand West a 2-0 victory and pushing them up to third in the table.

The league leaders, Colebrook Royals, were back in league action this weekend with a trip to East Ham to take on bottom of the table London APSA in a crucial match for both clubs. The Royals made no mistake on their part as they edged a tight contest by the odd goal as they saw off London APSA 2-1 in the end with Richard Klein and Dan Fisher finding the onion sack. The gap at the top has reverted to five points but with United London still having two games in hand that could prove important.

In the division’s remaining game of the day, Leyton Falcons continued their impressive return to action as they played host to relegation-threatened Blue Marlin in Leyton. Harry Rouse was the difference between the sides as he scored both of the Falcons goals in a 2-1 win. That result moves them up a place to seventh in the standings with Blue Marlin still in urgent need to points to bridge the gap with the safe sides just above them.

DIVISION ONE

The result of the day in Division One has to go to struggling Ferns Seniors who belied their position as previously at the foot of the table with resultant lack in confidence to stun Sporting Hackney Reserves on their own patch at the weekend. Liam Coney’s hat-trick will undoubtedly have paved the way to victory with strikes from Craig Wallace and Lee Niven securing the eventual 5-2 victory.

Also moving up the table on Saturday were Melbourne Sports who reached their highest placing of the season with a victory away at Cowley Community at Wanstead Flats. Goals from Ryan Lincoln and Marcus Dadson for the Mels helped them to confirm a 2-0 win which sees them move up to second place in the table and just a point behind the leaders, Docklands Albion.

If goals are your thing, the remaining two matches in Division One certainly met this requirement with sixteen goals between the two fixtures. Sharing nine of those were last season’s Division Two title rivals, Colebrook Royals Reserves and Ryan Reserves, who served up a thriller at the Grange. Archie Mustafa scored twice on his Royals debut adding to Robbie Carter and Chris Walling efforts but their efforts proved in vain as Ryan scored five goals to win it 5-4.

Not far behind in the goal scoring stakes was the top end of the table clash between East Ham Inter and Wapping with both sides keen to stay in the mix for the promotion places come the end of the season. The visitors to Seven Kings, Wapping, will be the side to have gone home the happier as they edged this thriller in a 4-3 win.

DIVISION TWO

There were some huge results on Saturday in Division Two affecting both ends of the table. Rainham Working Mens Club remain top of the pile but only just as they suffered only their second reverse of the season on with a shock defeat at the hands of Inter Plaistow in West Ham. Scott Meyers, Joshua Perry and Ricardo Teixeira were all on target but Plaistow goals from Jack Abbotts, Gianni Anderson, Joshua Hall, Ben Nyman and Elias Belhaddad turned the game on its head as Inter secured a hugely important 5-3 win.

That result gave added impetus to the day’s other hugely important match which saw ACD United take on United London Reserves in a battle between the sides second and third in the standings. United scored goals through Nathan Dennis and Sam Paterson but ACD efforts from Scott Perkins and Robert Clark saw them to a 3-2 victory that locks the top four sides in the table together, separated by just two points.

The fourth side in that cluster of clubs at the very top includes Flyers who bounced back from their disappointment last time out with a 6-0 victory this weekend against relegation threatened St Francis. Jason Collins scored a Flyers hat-trick with Daniel Ezeorji’s brace and Stephen Claxton single accounting for the balance of goals.

Also getting back to winning ways this weekend were Newham United Reserves who bounced back strongly from recent setbacks with an exciting 5-3 victory over local rivals, Custom House. Dockers goals from Will Pendley, Abraham Jairette and Jamie Wooster proved insufficient as United came through to secure a seventh win of the season.

Completing the division’s action were Lionside who were visited by struggling Forest Green Reserves on Saturday in Chadwell Heath. Hosts’ goals from Richard O’Reilly, Jamie Hedauk, Danny Cressey, Martyn Rifat, Terry Burdge and Michael Livesey rendered Green goals from Joshua Kibuuka and Adam Meragan as just consolation on the day in a 6-2 scoreline.

DIVISION THREE

FC Baresi have closed the gap at the top of Division Three this weekend with a comfortable 7-0 victory at home to Gatcliffe on Saturday. Andre Whyte and Ashley Campbell were the hat-trick heroes for their side with a Delano Lloyd goal completing the scoring to close the gap down to five points against Chigwell.

Current leaders Chigwell will be kicking themselves as they took on Old Esthameians Reserves at home on Saturday and slipped to a fourth defeat of the season in Hainault. Old E’s goals from Joe Coffey, Danny Harris and an Alex Booker brace overcame goals from the home side to carry their side up to fourth place in the table with eight matches to go.

The weekend will have certainly been one to remember for Custom House Community who, after a tumultuous start to their first ever season in Saturday football finally have a point to their name. Their opponents were Frenford A who themselves have shown a great turnaround in fortunes. The sides shared four goals and took home a point each with Charlie Salmon and Matthew Guy scoring the Custom House goals before Daniel Francis and Daniel Oliver levelled it up for Frenford in a 2-2 draw.

In the division’s remaining match Redbridge Development travelled to Hainault to take on Glendale with both sides locked together in mid-table. Jamil Shariffu was on-form with a hat-trick for his Redbridge side with Erik Gavilanes and Patrick Clarke also scoring to earn their side a 5-2 win. Seyi Agboola and Nyasha Mukachana were both on target with first club goals for the Dales.

COUNTY CUP

It was a big weekend for three of our clubs in the Essex Junior Trophy who went into the ties with places in the final stages very much in mind. Docklands Albion were finally able to complete their fourth round tie against Buckhurst Hill Under 21s and, despite the delay, will be happy with the outcome as they edged through 2-1 to book a quarter final clash against A1 Sports Under 21s next weekend.

In the day’s other ties, there was less success for our sides as Lymore Gardens' run in the competition finally came to end with a disappointing 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Corinthians Under 21s in Leyton while Singh Sabha Barking’s participation also came to an end with a 3-1 away defeat after a journey up the A12 to face Sandon Royals.