The latest round of matches in the Herts Advertiser Sunday League

PREMIER DIVISION

In a game that they mostly dominated Harpenden Colts Old Boys made hard work of retuning to winning ways missing numerous chances before four goals in the last 12 minutes sealed a comprehensive 5-0 victory against Phoenix, writes Brian Hubball.

James Warner helped himself to a hat-trick and there was a brace for David Keenleyside. Chris Ellis was outstanding at the back in a depleted Colts defence and there was a gutsy midfield debut from Adam Smith.

London Road held onto top spot in the division with a 2-1 win against Blackberry Jack. Dan McCafferty and new signing Ben Conrad netted the goals for Road with Matt Parkins replying for Jacks.

Vision recorded one of their best results of the season with a fine 6-1 win against champions Queens Head Sandridge. Joel Norris proved a handful up front, scoring four goals, with Liam Crouch and Adam Wallace completing the scoring. Matt Monhon replied for Queens.

DIVISION ONE

After taking an early lead through Aaron Clarke, Six Bells went to sleep allowing Hare & Hounds to dominate.

Hare & Hounds went on to score three goals before half-time and a further goal in the second half was good enough to take all three points. Six Bells came close on a few occasions but the Hounds’ defence was good enough to cope.

Oaks came out on top against a stubborn Beaver Travel side, winning 6-0.

After a goalless first half, Oaks made the breakthrough when Ian Shaw crossed for Steve Dorer to tap home. Shaw and Fulcher both added to Oaks’ tally before Potter hit a late hat-trick.

A strong first 15 minutes from 10-man Lifted Music, who fielded manager Craig Tanner in goal for the first time, resulted in them taking the lead through Lee Rowson, but Bradmore Rovers soon came back into the game with two quick goals from Paul Rickets and Jamie Caswell.

Lifted continued to press for the rest of the first half but couldn’t get past Bradmore custodian, Paul Mott, and Jamie Caswell scored just before the interval to make it 3-1.

A tight start to the second half saw no goals for 15 minutes until Darren Kellar unleashed a superb right foot volley from 25 yards to make it 4-1 to Bradmore. Lifted did not stop fighting all game and with 10 minutes to go had made it 4-3 with goals from captain Tom Roberts and Keith Smith. But the contest was finished when Glen Mair broke away to hand Bradmore a 5-3 win. Lifted’s star man was Tommy Smith.

DIVISION TWO

League leaders Footy Pants dropped points for only the second time this season when Three Hammers held them to a 1-1 draw.

Christian Brook netted his first goal of the season for Hammers with John Baines again in top form.

Old Albanians extended their unbeaten run to four games with a 1-0 win against Church End. Mark Stitchbury netted the only goal. Andris Apsa was the pick of the OAs players.

Following four defeats Phoenix Res bounced back to gain revenge over Oaklands with a fine 4-2 victory. Alex Thompson (two), Dan Leal and Sean Scott scored.

DIVISION THREE

SKEW Bridge Reserves turned in a below-par performance on their way to defeat against Old Albanians Reserves.

In contrast, the two main forwards for Old Albanians Reserves chased down everything and gave the home defence a torrid time which meant the away defence were never really examined until the last 20 minutes.

OAs’ goals came from Man of the Match Darren Kempster (two), Dave Hagen (two), Rob Battersby and James Elson.

St Albans IFC dominated possession but failed to make it count against Marquis of Granby.

Spencer Clarke-Mardel scored his 50th goal for the club and Jason Nicolaou notched a brace as IFC came from behind, but Marquis secured a point with a controversial late equaliser.

Brookmans Park Res took the lead against Wheathampstead ‘89 with a brilliant individual goal from Paul Simpson, but then fell to a heavy 6-1 defeat against the in-form village side. Lee Bennett was in unstoppable form scoring four times and Duncan Gray added two more

DIVISION FOUR

ST ALBANS Royals ran out 2-1 winners against Marshalswick Rovers.

Midway through the second half Royals broke the deadlock when a long throw into the box from Greg Moloney was tuned in to his own net by a defender.

Royals then scored three minutes later through their star player Rob Marven. Rovers got one back with two minutes to go through Ceri Dix but it was too little too late as Royals ran out 2-1 winners. Michael Emmett was Rovers star man.

In a hard fought game Queens Head were unfortunate not to come away with all three points against league leaders Herts Mauritian.

Queens Head took an early lead when Sam Jones rifled a shot into the Herts Mauritians penalty box where Dave Yeo cleverly flicked the ball through his legs to divert the ball into the back of the net.

Five minutes later Yeo crossed for Greg White to thunder the ball home.

Herts Mauritian were then gifted a goal after a defensive mix up and two minutes later equalised with both goals coming from ace marksman Darren Cavaree.

The second half was dominated by Queens Head who had many chances to kill the game off but there were no more goals and the game ended 2-2.

Brookmans Park A team fought out a 1-1 draw with White Horse Reserves, Park’s goal coming from Ronnie Dunn which cancelled out a Mike Blanchard first half effort. Toby Hanlon was the pick of the Park players.

DIVISION FIVE

A Sloppy 10 minutes saw Cottonmill slip to a 3-0 deficit against Raiders United after goals from Ben Woodman (two) and Daniel Bailey.

Mill were awarded a penalty which was dispatched by Lee Sturgess and Tim Couch scored with a flying header to make it 3-2.

United made it 4-2 from with another Bailey goal before Andy Cattermole came off the bench to score a brace to level scores at 4-4.

A nice Pete Hulland one-two with Dan Welch opened United’s defence for Hulland to cross to the far post where Lee Sturgess headed home the winner.

Dukes overcame a scrappy start to beat Athletico Quat.

Dukes scored twice in the first half, firstly through a waist high volley from Antony Brown and the second a header from Andrew Sharpe.

Athletico got one back midway through the second half but shortly after Dukes put it beyond Athletico’s reach with a clever corner kick from Jack Johnson that Bennetts tapped home.

In his 16th season and 322nd game Julian Phillips scored his 100th goal for Oaks FC which turned out to be the winner in their game with AFC Mymms.

Oaks started well with Phillips heading home following a Richard Landry cross. Oaks also celebrated another landmark as Andy Davies celebrated his 100th appearance for the club.

Greenwood Park continued their unbeaten run with a 3-1 win over Sandridge.

Greenwood opened the scoring midway through the first half when Matt Thorn ran on to a Rob Barron through ball and buried the ball past the on-rushing goalkeeper.

Shortly before half time Greenwood went two goals up when Rob Barron delivered a pinpoint cross for Michael Kwok to head past the ‘keeper.

The second half saw Greenwood defending well and playing classic counter attacking football.

Matt Thorn was causing the Sandridge defence all sorts of problems and got his second of the game after a back pass was not cleared by the keeper and Thorn nipped the ball off him and slotted home.

Moments later Thorn should have got his hat-trick but he misplaced his shot and from the resulting clearance Sandridge got a goal back through Duane Foster.

Greenwood could have got a fourth goal after Stuart Dempsey made a surging run from right-back and played a neat one-two with Kwok but having covered the entire length of the pitch Dempsey just managed to put his shot wide.

Greenwood thoroughly deserved the three points and veteran defender Tim Gould was Greenwood’s Man of the Match following a commanding performance.

Wheathampstead ‘89 Reserves recorded their fourth successive league win, defeating Bricket Wood 5-1 with two goals from Jason Rodway and efforts from Danny Wade, Aaron Rodway and Scott Rolls.

HERTS FA INTERMEDIATE CUP

BROOKMANS Park’s run in the County Cup came to an end at the hands of Thames Albion.

Falling behind early on, Park quickly equalised through Steve Lake. However, finding themselves 2-1 down at half time they did not recover and ended up losing 4-1, though the score was a bit unfair on Park who did create a decent amount of chances in the second half. Paul Griffiths was outstanding again for Park.

Verulam Arms are the last surviving team in the County Cup following a good 5-2 win against Northaw.

Star striker and Man of the Match Matt Kenneford was on fire netting three goals. Goals from Craig Parratt and Neil Burrows completed the fine victory.

HERTS ADVERTISER INTERMEDIATE CUP

Harpenden Arms marched into the next round of the Intermediate Cup with a 3-1 win against AFC Crown.

It was the Arms that got off to a good start with Michael Davis scoring in the first minute.

After missing a few good chances, Harpenden increased their lead with an Ally Collins goal on the 30 minute mark.

Crown were then awarded a penalty which Michael Cattermole converted to make it 2-1 at the break. Harpenden continued to make and miss chances in the second half but the game was put to bed with two minutes remaining by Tom Collins.

HERTS ADVERTISER RESERVE CUP

Man of the Match Sam Lewis ensured Harpenden Colts OB Res pressured an organised Colney Heath Rangers Res side throughout the game.

Colts came close to establishing a lead in the first half through Lewis, Luckhurst and Barker but defensive resistance ensured otherwise.

A lapse in concentration nearly let Colney in early in the second half, but despite Colney pressure Colts held firm until a corner 20 minutes from time was poorly defended and Colney took a 1-0 lead.

Despite Colts’ efforts, Colney repelled their attacks, and with seconds to go they evaded the high line to score a second goal for a final 2-0 victory. Rangers’ goals came from Ian Hutchinson and James Dover with Lee Green their outstanding player.