THE INANE RAMBLINGS FROM UP NORFF #16

Premier Division table toppers part company with manager Joe Sweeney. Tring Athletic finally win in the league. New Bradwell St Peter claim their biggest away win since October 2008. Buckingham United suffer heaviest defeat since joining SSML.

Saturday brought about 132 goals from the 28 games (an average of 4.71 per game) with Ben Green (Old Bradwell United) and Elton Anning (New Bradwell St Peter) each bagging five, Lee Bassett (Eynesbury United) a four goal haul while Josh Bamford (Bedford), James Hawkes (Long Crendon), Lewis Workman (Winslow United) and Jay Caines (Berkhamsted Comrades) all netting hat-tricks.

9 October Stats: 28 games played of which 11 were home wins, 13 were away wins and 4 draws.

Without A League Win to date: Burton Park Wanderers.

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: Risborough Rangers.

Saturday’s Highest Attendance: 257 Stotfold v Amersham Town, 208 Flackwell Heath v Crawley Green and 159 Aylesbury Vale Dynamos v New Salamis.

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 257 Stotfold v Amersham Town.

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.

The big story of the day concerns Premier Division leaders Leighton Town, having drawn 2-2 at lowly Oxhey Jets it was announced that manager Joe Sweeney was parting company with the club, the game had seen the visitors recover from 0-2 before securing a point and to add insult they even missed a very late penalty. Risborough Rangers closed the gap at the top to just two points as they saw off the challenge of visiting Arlesey Town 4-1 while Harpenden Town stay third after squeezing past Ardley United 3-2 in Hertfordshire. At the other end of the table Tring Athletic climbed off the bottom of the table as they recorded their first league win of the campaign with a solitary goal success against visiting London Colney, replacing the at the bottom are Dunstable Town who suffered a 0-4 defeat at the much improving Harefield United, the ‘Hares’ climb into the top ten as a result of their win. Elsewhere New Salamis are in seventh heaven after their seventh successive league win, this time winning 6-0 at Aylesbury Vale Dynamos while Holmer Green came out on top of a seven goal thriller at home against Hadley. The day’s Premier Division action was completed with away successes for Broadfields United and Crawley Green, Broadfields winning 3-0 at Baldock Town and Crawley winning 3-1 at Flackwell Heath. Full results and goalscorers are listed below.

0-6 Aylesbury Vale Dynamos v New Salamis (C Georgiou [2], Asamoah [2], Lutaaya, Becka [pen]) Attendance: 159
0-3 Baldock Town v Broadfields United (Ellis, Spinks, Brown) Attendance: 59
1-3 Flackwell Heath v Crawley Green (Essex) / (Andrews, Tabor, Oifoh) Attendance: 208
4-0 Harefield United v Dunstable Town (Bircham [2], Austin, Pacquette) Attendance: 90
3-2 Harpenden Town v Ardley United (Scott, Collins, Anthony) / (Casbieri, Willoughby) Attendance: 119
4-3 Holmer Green v Hadley (Odumosu [2], Dimitrijevic, Hodges) / (Edwards, Jupp, Marriot) Attendance: 76
2-2 Oxhey Jets v Leighton Town (Charles, Wade) / (Parkinson, Webb) Attendance: 104
4-1 Risborough Rangers v Arlesey Town (Wyllie, Yearwood, Enver-Marum, Schmidt) / (Miller) Attendance: 121
1-0 Tring Athletic v London Colney (Blunden) Attendance: 105

Milton Keynes Irish required a penalty shoot-out to earn their place in the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup First Round after drawing 1-1 at Combined Counties League Division One side Woodley United, the SSML club winning 6-5 on spot kicks. Full result and goalscorers are listed below.

1-1 [5-6 pens] Woodley United v Milton Keynes Irish (Carolan) / (Lawless) Attendance: 46

Division One leaders Stotfold bounced back from last week’s defeat to edge out visiting Amersham Town 2-1 in front of a crowd of 257 (the third highest Division One crowd of the season) while closest challengers Thame United Reserves remain five points behind after winning 2-0 at Rushden & Higham United. Wellingborough Whitworth returned to third place when leap frogging visiting Ampthill Town 3-1 while Winslow United moved into the play-off places with a 6-0 home win over second bottom side Irchester United. Bottom club Burton Park Wanderers picked up their third point of the campaign with a 2-2 draw at Penn & Tylers Green while Shefford Town & Campton eased their relegation fears with a 5-0 home success over Buckingham Athletic. Elsewhere they were big wins for Long Crendon (6-0 at home against Langford) with James Hawkes bagging a hat-trick for the second successive Saturday while Bedford won 7-3 at London Tigers. The day’s remaining game saw the points shared as Raunds Town and Letchworth Garden City Eagles played out a 1-1 draw at Kiln Park. Full results and goalscorers are listed below.

3-7 London Tigers v Bedford (Rodrigues, Akande, Sutherland) / (Bamford [3], Inskip, Box, McDonagh, Bunker) Attendance: Unknown
6-0 Long Crendon v Langford (Hawkes [3], Ashworth [2], Pounds) Attendance: 81
2-2 Penn & Tylers Green v Burton Park Wanderers (Green [2]) / (Arthur, Fitzjohn) Attendance: 37
1-1 Raunds Town v Letchworth Garden City Eagles (Goodman) / (Rusev) Attendance: 95
0-2 Rushden & Higham United v Thame United Reserves (Bestley, Alexander) Attendance: 47
5-0 Shefford Town & Campton v Buckingham Athletic (McNamara [2], Day, Ingham, Metcalfe) Attendance: 96
2-1 Stotfold v Amersham Town (Bradshaw [2]) / (Bennett) Attendance: 257
3-1 Wellingborough Whitworth v Ampthill Town (Bivens [2], Daldy) / (Butler) Attendance: 68
6-0 Winslow United v Irchester United (Workman [3], Deall [2], Williamson) Attendance: 144

No joy for Kidlington Reserves in the Oxfordshire Intermediate Cup as they suffered a First Round defeat at home against Hellenic League Division Two East side Woodcote, the visitors winning 2-1. Full result and goalscorers are listed below.

1-2 Kidlington Reserves v Woodcote (Barney) / (Boateng [2] [both pens]) Attendance: 25

No changes at the top of the standings as the top two both recorded big wins on the road, leaders Old Bradwell United enjoyed an 8-0 win at Codicote which sent their hosts to the bottom of the table while second placed New Bradwell St Peter went one better with a 9-1 win at Buckingham United, the result being the hosts heaviest defeat since joining the Spartan South Midlands League. Eynesbury United moved up to third with a 6-0 win at Bovingdon on a day that saw six of the seven games ending in away wins. Pitstone & Ivinghoe continued to be the club to watch if you want goals, their 5-4 win at Tring Corinthians AFC being the eighth game from ten that has seen six or more goals. Despite losing 0-3 at home to Aston Clinton, The 61FC (Luton) climbed off the bottom of the table while Sarratt went down by the odd goal in three at home against Milton Keynes College Football Academy. The day’s only hoe success saw Berkhamsted Comrades edging out Risborough Rangers Development 3-2. Full results and goalscorers listed below.

3-2 Berkhamsted Comrades v Risborough Rangers Development (Caines [3]) / (Osborne, Mayer) Attendance: 40
0-6 Bovingdon v Eynesbury United (Bassett [4], Fox [2[) Attendance: 113
1-9 Buckingham United v New Bradwell St Peter (Cruse) / (Anning [5], Zylko, Bradford, Winch, Bosoka) Attendance: 64
0-8 Codicote v Old Bradwell United (Green [5], Valentine [2], Ennis) Attendance: 55
1-2 Sarratt v Milton Keynes College Football Academy (Sells) / (Davis, Lane) Attendance: 35
0-3 The 61FC (Luton) v Aston Clinton (MacDonald, Doncaster, Paul) Attendance: 18
4-5 Tring Corinthians AFC v Pitstone & Ivinghoe (Hutchinson [2], Hatt, Hill) / (Groom [2], Hall [2], Downes) Attendance: 32

Berkhamsted Raiders produced a giant killing in the Herts Senior Centenary Trophy First Round with a 2-0 win at Step 6 Thurlow Nunn League Division One South side Wormley Rovers, the club will now await the visit of either Hatfield Town or Tring Corinthians AFC in the next round. Full result and goalscorers listed below.

0-2 Wormley Rovers v Berkhamsted Raiders (Hobbs, Barnard-White [pen]) Attendance: Unknown

AND FINALLY
The Tweet of the Week goes to Harpenden Town for the following gem – Despite the International call-ups the SSML has a full programme of games this weekend.

The result of this week’s Team of the Day Poll with 316 votes cast is:-
New Bradwell St Peter 32.3%
Tring Athletic 27.5%
Shefford Town & Campton 21.2%
New Salamis 19.0%

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