All the action from across the district

Local football round up

by Gareth Draper

Kershaw Premier League

ELY City Reserves early season promise suffered two quick-fire set-backs as they slumped to their first and second home defeats of the season within the space of four days.

First up on Wednesday evening was one of the early season pacesetters, Lakenheath, who were too strong for City and beat them comfortably by three goals to nil. Next was Somersham Town at the Unwin Ground and after a tight goal-less first half, and even though The Robins managed a goal through Lawrie Carter, Town still went away with all three points as they scraped through 2-1.

Littleport Town continued their impressive unbeaten start to the season as they salvaged four points from a possible six with a home win and a weekend draw. Tuesday night saw the visit of Newmarket Town Reserves and two second half goals from Andrew Francis and David Cornwell accounted for them comfortably. Eaton Socon were entertained on the Saturday and Michael Emms strike for Port was not enough as they nicked a 1-1 draw that leaves Town four points behind the early leaders with a game in hand.

Kershaw Senior A

BOTH the Soham sides are locked neck and neck at the top of this section as Town Rangers hit lowly Wimblington for six at home and United secured a point with a hard-fought score draw against Cherry Hinton.

Rangers were in rampant form as red-hot striker Thomas Christie hit a wonderful hatrick to take his season’s tally to six goals in four games and Jonathon Brown with a brace and Jake Fuller’s second in four games completed the humiliation for Wimblington.

United had Adam Clements to thank for scoring their only goal as Cherry Hinton provided stubborn resistance and took a point away with them. United still remain unbeaten though, and are proving that the step up into Senior A is not a problem at this point in the season.

Fordham continued to struggle as they shipped five goals for the third successive time this season to lose at Hemingfords United by the odd goal in six. This leaves them rock bottom of the league with only one goal to show for their efforts this season.

Kershaw Senior B

ELY City A’s woes stepped up apace as they succumbed 5-1 against Debden, meaning that they occupy bottom position in the league as they slumped to their fourth defeat from four outings.

Div 2B

WITCHFORD ’96 started their season with a bang as two Spencers scored three goals between them to give them a 3-1 win against Over Sports Reserves.

Ross (2) and Aron were the Spencers on target as Witchford coped easily without the departed league leading scorer from last season, Michael Ward, and now have a platform to build on for the new campaign.

The Vine were looking for a good start to the season to consolidate their excellent fourth position from the previous season and made a great start at home to March Rangers as Jon Cutter and David Arnold notched to take them into half-time 2-1 up. Rangers showed great determination though to overhaul this lead and came away with all the points with two second half goals to win 3-2.

Sutton United found life much more to their liking in this division after last season’s relegation woes as they travelled to Barton Mills and came away with the points in a seven goal thriller. Matthew Bruce, Wayne Newman, Billy-Joe Tillard and Sam Oliver were all on target as United squeezed through 4-3 in an exciting encounter.

Div 3B

IN the first of many local derbies in this division, last season’s fourth placed Ely Crusaders came out on top at Stretham Hotspurs by a narrow 3-2 margin. Last year’s top marksman Ali Msabaha, started the new season in with a twin strike and sub Joshua Bailey weighed in with a goal as Crusaders look to mount another assault on promotion this year. All this was managed even though Crusaders’ Thomas Clayton was shown the red card following two bookable offences. Michael Beeby and Richard Gray were on target for unlucky Stretham.

Little Downham Swifts’ new campaign began with a bang as Kevin Parfitt connected with a sweet volley in the alien surroundings of a home game played at Pymoor, and put them in the lead at ‘home’ to Brampton Reserves.

There were no more home comforts for Swifts though, as Brampton then struck four times before veteran Ray Miller got a late consolation strike for Downham, making the final score 4-2 in Brampton’s favour.

Mepal Sports also suffered a stuttering start to their season as they went down 3-2 to last season’s strugglers Exning United. Sam Morgan scored for Sports and new signing from Little Downham, Paul Bone, marked his debut with a goal from the bench, but this was not enough as United snatched victory by the odd goal in five.

Div 4B

BOTH the local sides in this section began their league seasons with losses as Wicken Amateurs went down heavily at home to Wisbech St Mary A 5-1 and Haddenham Rovers Reserves endured the misery of going ahead in 2-0 to the good at two goals at half yime to newly-promoted Longstanton Reserves only to lose 3-2. Both teams will be looking to bounce back from these defeats next week.

Div 5C

IT was a disastrous start to the season for Little Downham Swifts Reserves as the form they showed at the end of last season seemed to desert them completely against an enthusiastic Sutton United Reserves outfit as they were steamrollered by seven goals to one.

Some indifferent defending did not help matters as Sutton went into half-time with two strikes from Leigh Ball separating the teams. Swifts hit the post but had little unity as many players were playing with each other for the first time, and this led to a capitulation in the second half. Ball went onto complete his hatrick from the penalty spot and Michael Dawson’s pace was too much for Swifts as he appeared to walk through the defence four times to net to give him and his side hope for the rest of the season after finishing second from bottom last season.