North Berks Football League

North Berks Football League Roundup

8^th May 2010

(Phil Annets)

Benny Sutton hit a fine half volley to score the only goal of the match as Saxton Rovers retained the North Berks Cup at Abingdon United’s Northcourt Road ground defeating AFC Wallingford 1-0 and winning the league and cup double for the second successive season.

Benson AFC Reserves won a thrilling AG Kingham Cup final defeating fellow third division side Kintbury Rangers Reserves 5-4 after extra time, with Carl Fisher scoring the winning goal with a 45 yard free kick that eluded everybody in the box and went straight in. The match had ended 2-2 after 90 minutes after first half goals for Zach Gallagher and Ian Abbott put Benson two up only for Curtis Angell and Rob O’Hagan to respond for Kintbury in the second half. Dave Polley put Benson 3-2 ahead after only 10 seconds of extra time, but Kintbury scored twice through Jake Shearsby and Scott Bowers to go 4-3 up. However, Kris Ray made it 4-4 before Carl Fisher’s extraordinary winner.

The race for runners-up position in Division One looks likely to go all the way as Didcot Casuals finished their season by winning 3-1 at Drayton, thanks to two goals from Paul Powell and one from Ross Tyler. Iain Oram netted for Drayton. Meanwhile Faringdon Town are just three points behind with two games to play after winning 5-1 at home to Harwell Village with Steve Aley bagging a hat-trick and Dan Courtney a double.

In Division Two Long Wittenham Athletic ran out 10-0 winners at Coleshill United thanks to four goals from Steve Molloy, three from Adam Bailey, two from Andy Marriott and one from Joe Harvey. Lambourn Sports Reserves 2-1 win at Grove Rangers was not enough to lift them out of the relegation places finishing their season second from bottom. Mark Mooney converted a penalty along with a Mark Bulloch strike, whilst Mike Davies netted for Grove.

Hanney United have been crowned champions of Division Three following a 3-1 victory at promotion rivals Benson Lions. Lee Kent, James Bishop and Chris Hogan scored for Hanney with Richard Grimshaw-Else replying for Benson. The Lions now have to compete with Bampton Town for the runners-up spot who helped their own promotion cause with an 8-2 win at Sutton Courtenay. Dan Oyston banged in five goals, Ian Steele bagged a brace and Darryl Kew hit the other, whilst Dan Cox and James Ivey scored for the hosts.

Uffington United grabbed the runners-up spot in Division Four following a 5-1 home win over Hagbourne United. Devan Bryan scored twice along with one apiece from Aaron Williams, Aiden Williams and Kevin Edwards. Chris Hubbard scored the consolation for Hagbourne. Didcot Casuals Reserves followed up their Nairne Paul Trophy triumph with a final 6-4 home victory over Coleshill United Reserves on Friday night. Paul Godding, Glynn McGiven, Lewis Monaghan, Dan Knapp, Luke Hammond and Gareth Cole were all on the scoresheet for Didcot, with Pete Byrne scoring twice for Coleshill alongside goals for John Painter and Chris Quinton.

Benson AFC Reserves and Kintbury Rangers Reserves served up a cracker of an AG Kingham Cup Final at Abingdon United’s Northcourt Road ground, producing nine goals and more twists and turns than a Dan Brown novel.

In conditions more akin to early March than early May it was Benson who started the brighter and just after Charles Selwood had his overhead kick comfortably saved by Paul O’Hagan in the seventh minute, Alijandro Rodriguez latched onto a great ball played down the right hand side and crossed low and hard to the rushing in Zach Gallagher, who powered home from close range to open the scoring.

Kintbury’s Josh Newton had a goal struck off for offside five minutes later, and soon after George Faulkner had to be at his best with a one-handed save keeping out a strong shot from Rob O’Hagan after great interchange with Charlie Allsop down the right wing. Benson’s Ed Carter was presented with a golden opportunity to double their lead on 26 minutes when the ball bounced off a defender’s heel leaving him clear in the box, but his shot went woefully wide. However, from the ensuing passage of play a cleared ball by Kintbury deflected off referee Geoff Long to the feet of Ian Abbott who despatched the ball with aplomb into the back of the net from 20 yards.

Kintbury continued to press and even at this early stage it was evident Benson would need more goals to secure the victory. On the stroke of half time they had their chance to put the game beyond doubt when Pete Ashman played the ball over the top for Charles Selwood, but he shot tamely at the keeper with the goal at his mercy. And so it remained 2-0 at half time.

In the second half Kintbury maintained their attacking ideal and both Curtis Angell and Allsop went close in the first ten minutes before the breakthrough finally came. And it was these two players that combined to produce it as Allsop played a long ball into the path of Angell who rounded the keeper and slotted the ball into the net. Kintbury increased the pressure on Benson searching for the equaliser and came closest to doing so on 64 minutes when Allsop’s shot from 12 yards was blocked by Gallagher on the line. Five minutes later Faulkner in the Benson goal palmed away a goal bound header from Scott Bowers. Eventually Kintbury got the reward for all their pressure with just five minutes of normal time remaining as Rob O’Hagan met a deep cross at the far post to head the game into extra time.

Extra time exploded into life with the match settled in its first 10 minutes. Benson kicked off and re-took the lead within 10 seconds when Ashman and Dave Polley produced a fine one-two resulting in Polley firing past the keeper. Kintbury almost equalised two minutes later when Bowers shot was palmed onto the post by Faulkner and Newton was unable to capitalise on the rebound from close range. Soon after Curtis Angell sustained a rib injury that saw him leave the pitch and leave Kintbury to play the remainder of the game with 10 men having already made all their substitutions.

Not that going down to 10 men meant that the game was all over. Immediately after the game restarted following Angell’s prolonged on-pitch treatment the competition’s top scorer Jake Shearsby produced a beautifully curled shot from the left hand corner of the 18 yard area that flew over the outstretched arm of Faulkner into the back of the net to make it 3-3. And Kintbury weren’t finished yet. Within minutes Shearsby and Bowers exchanged passes in the box creating space for Bowers who slotted the ball under the legs of the advancing Faulkner to give Kintbury the lead for the first time in the match.

Benson responded immediately and substitute Kris Ray latched onto a long ball over the top of the defence and blasted home from 12 yards to make it four apiece. And within a minute Benson had won the match in the most unlikely fashion. They were awarded a free kick in an innocuous position five yards inside the Kintbury half near the right touch line. Up stepped Carl Fisher, who despite seeing his team conceding four goals, had been a stalwart in the middle of the defence clearing repeated danger with solid headers. He wasn’t expecting to be the match winner. Nobody was expecting this to be the match winning moment, but in front of the very vociferous Benson fans he launched the ball deep into the Kintbury area, missing the heads of all defenders and attackers, completely deceiving Paul O’Hagan in the Kintbury goal, and straight into the back of the net. Both players and fans alike celebrated wildly.

Benson Captain James Passey (right) and Goal scorer Ian Abbott lift AG Kingham Cup

There was still 20 minutes of the match remaining, and whilst half chances fell at both ends, the score remained unchanged and it was James Passey, the Benson captain, who collected the AG Kingham Cup from long standing North Berks referee and guest of honour Bob Warman.

Recently crowned Division One champions Saxton Rovers made it a double success with a hard fought victory over AFC Wallingford to retain the North Berks League Cup at Abingdon United’s Northcourt Road ground.

Saxton created the most chances throughout the match and always seemed likely to score at some point with Wallingford being restricted to the occasional ball over the top for their fast paced forwards to latch onto. However, no matter how hard Saxton huffed and puffed in the first half, the Wallingford defence stood firm and restricted Saxton to half chances at best. The closest they came to scoring was when Benny Sutton had a close range shot heroically blocked by a Wallingford defender. And so it remained goalless at half time.

Half time seemed to spur on Wallingford briefly with Tom Collins and Jordan Brown both coming close in the first 10 minutes, but then the game settled down to the pattern of the first half. A minute later what could have been the defining moment of the cup final occurred when Wallingford’s Sean Kelleher tangled with Saxton’s Danny Parry in the Wallingford penalty area and referee Alan Meredith blew for a penalty. The spot kick was delayed as Wallingford had to replace the injured Llewellyn-Reid, and although Paul Churchouse struck his penalty kick hard and low, it was too central and Nick Bovingdon was able to produce a fine save.

However, this piece of good fortune for Wallingford didn’t seem to have any impact on the shape of the game and eventually their resistance crumbled as Saxton struck what proved to be the winning goal. And it was a fine strike from Benny Sutton, latching onto a low hard cross from Adam Greenaway on the left wing, to blast the ball first time with his left foot low into the right hand side of the net with 20 minutes remaining.

Saxton Rovers - North Berks Cup Winners 2010

It was Saxton who looked more likely to increase their lead than Wallingford were to equalise and Mike Beale should have settled the match with 10 minutes left only to shoot wide when clear through on goal. However, Sutton’s goal proved enough to win the cup and Wayne Harbert joyfully collected the trophy from the guest of honour, Councillor Patricia Hobby, Mayor of Abingdon, and the team went about celebrating a second successive league and cup double.

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