WEEK 31 REVIEW: Round-up of Saturday's EAL league and cup action

Premier Division Cup

The full line-up for this season’s Premier Division Cup final is now complete as United London booked their place to face West Essex Reserves in May with a fairly straight-forward 2-0 home win on Saturday against last year’s finalists, Jolof Sports. That result keeps United’s outside chances of a league and cup double on however it remains out of their hands on the league front at this time.

Division One Cup

The second on the season’s Division One Cup finalists was also sorted as Docklands Albion took on Melbourne Sports in Walthamstow with both sides just ninety minutes away from a place at Dagenham. And it was Albion, already finalists in the Fenton Cup, who will be the happier of the two sides as strikes from Jamie Ryan, Wilson Diogo and Kris Brown proved the difference between the teams to run out 3-0 winners. They now face the reigning cup winners, Three Colts, in their May showdown.

Division Two Cup

Continuing a busy weekend of cup football, it was also semi-final day for two of this season’s top Division Two outfits as title rivals ACD United and Chingford Athletic Reserves met in Chadwell Heath. In a game that, on paper, looked like it would be another classic, this was indeed the case as ACD had to once again come from behind to a Jack Knowles strike for Chingford to secure a 2-1 win as Greg Knock and Michael Wade netted.

Division Three Cup

It was a Super Saturday in the Division Three Cup with both of the day’s semi-finals taking place simultaneously to add to the drama. FC Baresi have shortened the odds dramatically on a league and cup double this season as they added a cup final appearance to their burgeoning reputation, winning 6-1 against Gatcliffe with braces from Delano Lloyd and Andre Whyte plus singles for Daniel Fitzsimons and Hashim Akram to render Chris Bird’s effort as just consolation.

Their opponents in the final might not be quite expected as New Star Soccer pulled off a sensational result in beating their lofty league opponents, Old Esthameians Reserves. The warning signs had been there following their dress rehearsal victory last time out but this one will mean much more as John East and Dwaine Hitchman goals levelled up efforts from Chris Booker and Joe Coffey to send the game to a shootout. New Star won that by 4 efforts to 2 to book their place at Dagenham.

Division Four Cup

Completing a memorable day for sides in the cup competitions, our sixth semi-final winners from the weekend are Haver Town Reserves who themselves harbour hopes of a league and cup double with one part of that equation already in the bag. They defeated Debden Park by the odd goal in five, overcoming a second half fight back from the hosts to win 3-2 with Michael Brown netting twice and Jack Phillips. They will now meet Avondale Rangers in the final in little over a fortnight.

Premier Division

Back to the domestic league action, there was just the one game in the Premier Division this weekend as West Essex Reserves followed up their recent cup semi final win with a home league victory, seeing off London Cranes in a 6-0 win. Izunna Ogedi-Uzokwe and Callum Bloss both scored twice with Benjamin Leo and Adam Norris netting the remainder in a comprehensive win to keep them fourth in the table.

Division One

Three Colts have moved up a number of places in the Division One table as they played host to last year’s cup final opponents, Sporting Hackney Reserves. A 5-1 win on Saturday for Colts followed up confirmation of another final last weekend with Matt Daley scoring twice adding to efforts from Richard Blackwell, Thomas Jakob and Nicky Blackwell.

The day’s other action in the division centred around a double header between two relegation threatened sides in the shape of Forest Green and Colebrook Royals Reserves. With Royals in urgent need of increasing their points tally, it was Green who will have left the happier of the two sides with a pair of wins. Lloyd Boateng scored a hat-trick and Jonathan Landreth-Smith and Hadi Lounici got one each to cancel a Daniel Moody effort for the hosts as Green won 5-1 in the first match. Second time around, Ryan Sylvester scored twice and Lloyd Boateng once as Green won 3-1 to make it six points won on the day.

Division Two

There were plenty of goals in Division Two this weekend with some one-sided looking contests. Lymore Gardens put an impressive ten goals past cup final bound Lionside, perhaps with a hangover still in effect. Josh Morris scored four, Alex Osbourne three with Ashley Godwin, Dushane Powell and Eugene Goumou also on target in the big win.

The division’s other match served up a six goal performance from Flyers who soared back into shape with a 6-0 victory against United London Reserves after a difficult spell for the team. Patrick Junior scored a brace with Stephen Claxton, Lee Hattam and Jack Swaby also finding the back of the net. That results carries the victors up to fifth place, just goal difference placing them above their opposition.

Division Three

In Division Three, Chigwell took advantage of FC Baresi being out of action to close the gap on them at the top of the table to just a point. They were 5-0 victors at home to Glendale, doing the majority of their business in the latter part of the first half to do the damage on the day.

Whilst the destination of the league title is looking fairly certain, the race for the second promotion place is warming up and Redbridge Development will have their hat in the ring for an outside chance with that as they bounced back from a cup defeat last time out to beat Frenford A 5-2. Andre Trinder scored a hat-trick with Aaron Oliveira and Aaron Lewis also scoring in the win.

The day’s remaining league action took place at Wanstead Flats where Custom House Community completed their penultimate league match of the season, going down 2-1 at home to Chingford Harriers in a closely fought match. Adam Ferdinandi and Luke Edmead got themselves on the scoresheet but were made to work for the win.