Stotfold lose the last remaining 100% record. Risborough Rangers and Aylesbury Vale Dynamos both hit five on the road in the Premier Division. Northampton Sileby Rangers and Long Crendon serve up a nine goal thriller. Shefford Town & Campton record the SSML’s only success in opening round of the Beds Senior Trophy.

Saturday brought about 97 goals from the 23 games (an average of 4.22 per game) with Jake Baldwin (Aylesbury Vale Dynamos), Taylor Rhiney (Crawley Green), Liam Enver-Marum (Risborough Rangers), James Hawkes (Long Crendon), Dan Lyons (Northampton Sileby Rangers), Kyle Faulkner (Buckingham Athletic), Jonathan McNamara (Shefford Town & Campton) and Brandon Carney (The 61FC (Luton)) all netting hat-tricks.

2 October Stats: 23 games played of which 7 were home wins, 12 were away wins, 4 draws plus 1 abandoned.

Without A League Win to date: Burton Park Wanderers and Tring Athletic.

Without A League Draw to date: Amersham Town, Aston Clinton, Baldock Town, Broadfields United, Codicote, Dunstable Town, London Tigers, Risborough Rangers Development, Sarratt, Stotfold, The 61FC (Luton) and Winslow United.

Without A League Defeat to date: Ampthill Town and Risborough Rangers.

Saturday’s Highest Attendance: 144 Flackwell Heath v Leighton Town, 107 Arlesey Town v Leverstock Green and 104 Hadley v Risborough Rangers.

Season’s Highest Attendances to date (Premier Division Clubs): 418 Leighton Town v Harpenden Town, 361 Hadley v Enfield Town (FA Cup) and 350 Harefield United v Hastings United (FA Cup).

Season’s Highest Attendances to date (Division One Clubs): 317 Stotfold v Letchworth Garden City Eagles, 283 Stotfold v Langford and 176 Stotfold v Buckingham Athletic.

Season’s Highest Attendances to date (Division Two Clubs): 175 Bovingdon v Berkhamsted Raiders 130 Totternhoe v Old Bradwell United and 128 Milton Keynes College Football Academy v Berkhamsted Raiders.

Saturday 2nd October

PREMIER DIVISION

Leighton Town remain top of the standings following a 2-1 win at Flackwell Heath watched by the day’s biggest crowd of 144. Two of Bedfordshire clubs rivals for the title faced each other and the game was witnessed by Mike Taylor who pens the following report - A very wet afternoon at Arkley found two of the premier division’s championship contenders come face to face, records could and would be broken…but for the first 10 minutes or so most of the traffic headed towards the visitors defence who displayed a determined resilience. However Risbros’ record of 39 league games undefeated (including Hellenic results) could not be understated and sure enough the visitors began to push Hadley back, using the wings to full advantage. On 22 minutes more fast wing play down the left, a driven cross and whack the ball was in the back of the Hadley net before the defenders could muster a challenge. If that was a fine bit of play then the sumptuous volley that followed on 27th minutes was worth the soaking on its own. Another Risborough effort on 33mins was ruled out for offside, the rain was relentless, but clearly the visitors were ‘tanked up’ for the second 45 mins. In truth Hadley rarely threatened the visitors, who pushed forward at every opportunity. The 3rd goal arrived when a Hadley defender was robbed and another fine shot smacked the back of the net. As puddles formed, the Hadley defence found great difficulty in clearing the ball and were punished once again with a clumsy challenge just in the box, Risbro’ grabbed the opportunity to make it 4-0 and then on 75mins the visitors pounced on a rebound and 5-0 underlined the emphatic result. Truth be told the damage could have been worse. The entertainment didn’t finish there as Assistant Reid took a ‘splashing dive’ along the touchline…5.5 for that!!! Yes, the laundry person would be busy washing the sodden kit, Hadley, to their credit, took the defeat on the chin, and I’m sure that Risboro’ travelled home smiling about their 40 league games now undefeated, ’fuelled-up,’ pumped-up’ and leaving their hosts ‘Shell-shocked’…..sorry!!! At the other end of the table Baldock Town moved out of the drop zone with an odd goal in three win at Ardley United while dropping into the red zone are Oxhey Jets after being beaten 1-2 by hosts London Colney. Bottom club Tring Athletic picked up a useful point on their travels with a 3-3 draw at Crawley Green. Elsewhere Arlesey Town suffered a narrow home defeat when Leverstock Green came from 0-2 down to win 3-2 while New Salamis saw off the challenge of visiting Milton Keynes Irish 2-0 to move up to seventh. The day’s other Premier Division action saw Aylesbury Vale Dynamos win 5-0 at Broadfields United in front of their watching new manager Steve Bateman. Full results and goalscorers (where known) are listed below.

1-2 Ardley United v Baldock Town (Willoughby) / (Furness, Robertson) Attendance: 50
2-3 Arlesey Town v Leverstock Green (Sayer, Carvalho) / (Wilkes [2], Collins) Attendance: 107
0-5 Broadfields United v Aylesbury Vale Dynamos (Baldwin [3], Shortt [2]) Attendance: 35
3-3 Crawley Green v Tring Athletic (Rhiney [3] [2 pens]) / (Turner, Brooks, Blunden [pen]) Attendance: 43
1-2 Flackwell Heath v Leighton Town (Thomas) / (Flanagan [2]) Attendance: 144
0-5 Hadley v Risborough Rangers (Enver-Marum [3] [1 pen], Schmidt, Wyllie) Attendance: 104
2-1 London Colney v Oxhey Jets (Unknown) / (Inch) Attendance: 30
2-0 New Salamis v Milton Keynes Irish (Ogunseye, Asamoah) Attendance: 31

DIVISION ONE

Division One leaders Stotfold saw their 100% league record extinguished at Thame United Reserves, the hosts netting twice without reply to climb to fourth place. Third placed Wellingborough Whitworth enjoyed a 5-1 win on the road at Letchworth Garden City Eagles while Northampton Sileby Rangers remain fifth after edging out visiting Long Crendon by the odd goal in a nine goal thriller. At the other end of the table Penn & Tylers Green moved out of the bottom three after obtaining a point at Rushden & Higham United with a 2-2 draw. Winslow United made it four wins from their five league outings to date with a 4-0 success at Raunds Town while the day’s other Division One fixture saw Buckingham Athletic defeat visiting Irchester United 3-0 with Kyle Faulkner netting a hat-trick for the second successive Saturday. Full results and goalscorers are listed below.

3-0 Buckingham Athletic v Irchester United (Faulkner [3]) Attendance: 42
1-5 Letchworth Garden City Eagles v Wellingborough Whitworth (Rusev) / (Thompson, Bivens, Curtis, Judge, Almahad) Attendance: 33
5-4 Northampton Sileby Rangers v Long Crendon (Lyons [3], Freitas, Burrows) / (Hawkes [3], Hall) Attendance: 31
0-4 Raunds Town v Winslow United (Freshwater [pen], McGowan, Brown, Lawler) Attendance: 70
2-2 Rushden & Higham United v Penn & Tylers Green (McMahon, Pendred) / (Brown, Cooper) Attendance: 37
2-0 Thame United Reserves v Stotfold (Elliott, Alexander) Attendance: 42

BEDS SENIOR TROPHY First Round

It was a bad day for SSML teams in the First Round of the Beds Senior Trophy, with five of our clubs taking part in the opening Round of the competition with had just one winner and that was guaranteed as it was an all SSML tie. Shefford Town & Campton were the successful club following a 4-0 win at Ampthill Town while the other three ties saw the Beds County League sides complete a hat-trick. Bedford going down 2-3 at home against Marston Shelton Rovers while Division Two sides The 61FC (Luton) and Totternhoe bowed out against Biggleswade FC Reserves and Sharnbrook respectively. Full results and goalscorers (where known) are listed below.

0-4 Ampthill Town v Shefford Town & Campton (McNamara [3], Ingham) Attendance: 79
2-3 Bedford v Marston Shelton Rovers (Bamford, McLeod-Bentley) / (Murray [2, Nelson) Attendance: 50
4-3 Biggleswade FC Reserves v The 61FC (Luton) (Davis-Thomas [2], Smith, Jammeh) / (Carney [3]) Attendance: Unknown
1-2 Totternhoe v Sharnbrook (Unknown) / (O’Neil, Horn) Attendance: 72

DIVISION TWO

Old Bradwell United remain as table toppers following their hard fought 2-1 win at fourth placed Pitstone & Ivinghoe, the lead at the top now three points after second placed New Bradwell St Peter were held to a 2-2 draw at Berkhamsted Raiders, the hosts recovering from being 0-2 down to claim a point. Aston Clinton made it three wins from their last three games as they swept aside visiting new boys Milton Keynes College Football Academy 5-1 while Bovingdon squeezed past Tring Corinthians AFC on their travels with a solitary goal success. Eynesbury United battled out a 2-2 draw at home against Berkhamsted Comrades while the day’s other fixture between Risborough Rangers Development and Buckingham United was abandoned at the interval due to the pitch being waterlogged following the heavy rain. Full results and goalscorers listed below.

5-1 Aston Clinton v Milton Keynes College Football Academy (Doncaster [2], Paul, Williams, MacDonald) / (Summers) Attendance: 25
2-2 Berkhamsted Raiders v New Bradwell St Peter (Burchnall, Barnard-White) / (Winch [2]) Attendance: 25
2-2 Eynesbury United v Berkhamsted Comrades (Baxter [2]) / (Mannion, Gray) Attendance: 62
1-2 Pitstone & Ivinghoe v Old Bradwell United (Hall) / (Cooke, Hack) Attendance: 38
A-A Risborough Rangers Development v Buckingham United
0-1 Tring Corinthians AFC v Bovingdon (Gueye) Attendance: 30

AND FINALLY
The Tweet of the Day goes to New Bradwell St Peter for the following gem on a day when the weather was not at its kindest – FT 2-2! Frustrating afternoon as 3 points where there for the taking, but it finishes even here at the Orbitals Fasteners Swimming Pool.

The result of this week’s Team of the Day Poll with 222 votes cast is:-
Risborough Rangers 46.8%
Aylesbury Vale Dynamos 30.2%
Thame United Reserves 14.9%
Aston Clinton 8.1%

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 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:-

Ollie Bayliss Non League Show