Once again the Bank Holiday fixtures attracted large crowds, the 21 games brought about a total of 2860 spectators with thirteen clubs. Ardley United, Baldock Town, Broadfields United, Harefield United, Harpenden Town, Risborough Rangers, Buckingham Athletic, Irchester United, Kidlington Reserves, Langford, Rushden & Higham United, Stotfold and Aston Clinton attracting their highest league crowds of the season.

MONDAY HEADLINES
Rushden & Higham United net eight at home and Winslow United bag six on the road in Division One. Ardley United and Flackwell Heath both net five in the Premier Division. Sarratt and Old Bradwell United both score five in Division Two.

Monday brought about 80 goals from the 21 games (an average of 3.81 per game). Joshua Tooke (Ardley United) netting 4 while Dominic Lawless (Milton Keynes Irish), Stephen Amadi (Crawley Green), Lewis Workman (Winslow United), Jonathan McNamara (Shefford Town & Campton), Jake Reynolds (Rushden & Higham United) and Toby Cribb (Old Bradwell United) all bagged hat-tricks.

Monday Stats: 21 games played of which 6 were home wins, 10 away wins and 5 draws.

Without A League Draw to date: Aston Clinton, Codicote, Old Bradwell United, Risborough Rangers Development and The 61FC (Luton).

Without A League Defeat to date: Risborough Rangers.

Monday Highest Attendances: 404 Stotfold v Ampthill Town, 281 Dunstable Town v Arlesey Town and 265 Harefield United v Flackwell Heath.

Season’s Highest Attendances to date (Premier Division Clubs): 473 Leighton Town v Broadfields United, 449 Leighton Town v Aylesbury Vale Dynamos and 435 Dunstable Town v Leighton Town.

Season’s Highest Attendances to date (Division One Clubs): 404 Stotfold v Ampthill Town, 392 Stotfold v Bedford and 371 Ampthill Town v Bedford.

Season’s Highest Attendances to date (Division Two Clubs): 212 Bovingdon v Totternhoe, 175 Bovingdon v Berkhamsted Raiders and 134 Totternhoe v Leighton Town (Gladwish Challenge Trophy).

Monday 3rd January

PREMIER DIVISION
Table toppers Risborough Rangers were made to work hard to break down a stubborn Tring Athletic defence before securing a three points thanks to a solitary second half goal while Hadley drew level with Leighton Town in second place with a 2-0 success at Harpenden Town to leave them ten points behind the leaders. At the bottom there were big wins for both Crawley Green and Holmer Green in their battle to avoid the drop, Crawley bottom at the start of play beat Baldock Town the side immediately above them 4-2 to swop places while Holmer won 2-1 at high flying Leverstock Green. Plenty of goals at Ardley United as the hosts defeated Milton Keynes Irish 5-3 with debutant Joshua Tooke netting four while the ever improving Flackwell Heath won 5-1 at Harefield United to climb to eighth in the standings. Elsewhere Oxhey Jets were 2-0 winners at Broadfields United while in the days other action Dunstable Town and Arlesey Town battled out a 2-2 draw at Creasey Park in front of a large crowd. Full results and goalscorers (where known) are listed below.

5-3 Ardley United v Milton Keynes Irish (Tooke [4], Benjamin) / (Lawless [3] [1 pen]) Attendance: 128
2-4 Baldock Town v Crawley Green (James, Hay) / (Amadi [3], Mongey) Attendance: 162
0-2 Broadfields United v Oxhey Jets (Tabor, Giordmaina) Attendance: 133
2-2 Dunstable Town v Arlesey Town (Muchineripi, Nicholls) / (Cameron, Brito) Attendance: 281
1-5 Harefield United v Flackwell Heath (Green) / (Driiffill [2], Higgs [2], Ayles) Attendance: 265
0-2 Harpenden Town v Hadley (Alfano, Ofori) Attendance: 237
1-2 Leverstock Green v Holmer Green (Seale) / (Daio, Mitchell) Attendance: 81
1-0 Risborough Rangers v Tring Athletic (Kedzierski) Attendance: 237

DIVISION ONE
The day’s biggest crowd was at the Division One fixture involving table topping Stotfold and third placed Ampthill Town and the 404 in attendance were treated to a hard fought competitive game that saw everyone go home happy following a 1-1 draw. Second placed Winslow United moved to within four points of the leaders as they enjoyed a 6-0 success at Kidlington Reserves. The chasing pack at the top saw Northampton Sileby Rangers climb to fourth with a 3-1 win at bottom club Irchester United while Wellingborough Whitworth move into fifth spot after winning 2-1 at struggling Burton Park Wanderers. Buckingham Athletic beat visiting Long Crendon by a solitary goal and more on this one can be found later in the ramblings. Elsewhere there were plenty of goals as Rushden & Higham United thumped Raunds Town 8-1 while Shefford Town & Campton enjoyed a 5-0 success at neighbours Langford. The day’s other action saw Amersham Town come from behind at the interval to draw 1-1 with visiting Penn & Tylers Green. Full results and goalscorers are listed below.

1-1 Amersham Town v Penn & Tylers Green (Bennett [pen]) / (Green) Attendance: 72
1-0 Buckingham Athletic v Long Crendon (Tappin) Attendance: 94
1-2 Burton Park Wanderers v Wellingborough Whitworth (Fitzjohn) / (Lovell, Lasalire) Attendance: 97
1-3 Irchester United v Northampton Sileby Rangers (Whitehead) / (A Taylor, L Taylor, Burrows) Attendance: 75
0-6 Kidlington Reserves v Winslow United (Workman [3], Freshwater [pen], Deall, Carter) Attendance: 66
0-5 Langford v Shefford Town & Campton (McNamara [3], Metcalfe [2]) Attendance: 133
8-1 Rushden & Higham United v Raunds Town (Reynolds [3], Aidulis [2], Knowles [2], McMahon) / (Speight) Attendance: 86
1-1 Stotfold v Ampthill Town (Simms) / (Butler) Attendance: 404

DIVISION TWO
Old Bradwell United opened up a two point gap at the top with a 5-0 win against visiting Codicote while fellow joint morning leaders Eynesbury United were held to a goalless draw at home by Milton Keynes College Football Academy. At the other end of the table Sarratt enjoyed a 5-1 success at Buckingham United to climb three places while bottom club Tring Corinthians AFC picked up a useful point following a 1-1 draw at New Bradwell St Peter. The days other action saw Aston Clinton edge out visiting Risborough Rangers Development by the odd goal in three. Full results and goalscorers (where known) are listed below.

2-1 Aston Clinton v Risborough Rangers Development (Williams [2]) / (Husbands) Attendance: 60
1-5 Buckingham United v Sarratt (Unknown) / (Evans [2], Bircham [2] [1 pen], Thomas) Attendance: 41
0-0 Eynesbury United v Milton Keynes College Football Academy Attendance: 102
1-1 New Bradwell St Peter v Tring Corinthians AFC (Webb [pen]) / (Hatt) Attendance: 30
5-0 Old Bradwell United v Codicote (Cribb [3], Valentine [2]) Attendance: 76

COMMITTEE AWAYDAYS
Bob Flight was at Buckingham Athletic on Monday and sends the following report:-
New Year bank holiday Monday saw Buckingham Athletic entertain Long Crendon in a division one fixture. Before the kick off, League Official John Chidley presented Long Crendon with their November team of the Month Award. But this was as good as it got for the visitors as they narrowly lost out by a single goal to Athletic. The pitch was very heavy and not conducive to playing pretty football and passing the ball out from the back. However, Athletic adapted far better to the conditions with their no nonsense approach to the game. But Long Crendon held the balance of play in the first half and an early shot just went wide of the home goal. But the only goal of the half, and indeed the match, came from Buckingham when following a left wing corner, which Long Crendon failed to properly clear, allowed Carl Tappin to shoot the ball through a sea of legs and into the corner of the visitors net on 23 minutes. Just before half time, Buckingham thought that had scored again but this was correctly ruled out for offside. The second half was more of an even contest and Long Crendon were unlucky to first see a deflected shot hit the outside of the Athletic post and from the resulting corner another effort kicked off the home goal line. However, despite a succession of corners, they failed to trouble Nick Bennion in the home goal. Athletic always looked dangerous on the break and Long Crendon had to thank their keeper Josh Cullen for a last ditch tackle to deny Athletic a second goal. The visitor frustrations grew as first they could make no impression on the home defence and secondly they had a couple of penalty appeals turned down by the match officials. As the game drew to a close, a Long Crendon player was fortunate only to see a yellow card for a wild challenge on Tolu Ikuyinminu and in the final few minutes they were reduced to ten men as another Long Crendon player was sent to the sin bin. In general, a draw would have been a fairer result but Athletic deserved they win for their strong application in difficult conditions throughout the match. The result sees Buckingham leap frog Long Crendon in the league table.

AND FINALLY
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

The result of this week’s Team of the Day Poll with 365 votes cast is:-
Holmer Green 35.6%
Flackwell Heath 31.5%
Sarratt 18.4%
Rushden & Higham United 14.5%