All the action from across the district

Local football round up

By Gareth Draper

Div 2B

THE Vine battled back from 2-0 down to steal a point away at local rivals Sutton United.

Sloppy defending twice gifted the home team an early advantage through Jamie Edmonds and Sam Oliver but The Vine’s James Smith was at hand to convert from close range on the stroke of half-time. The Vine dominated the second half and equalised from a clinical David Martin penalty after Jon Cutter was brought down in the box. Sutton’s keeper pulled off some acrobatic saves to deny The Vine their first three points of the season as the score remained 2-2 at full time in a tough but entertaining game.

League Leaders Witchford ’96 cruised to their sixth straight win of the season to overcome Doddington United 4-1.

Ross Spencer edged past his brother Aron in the goalscoring charts, as he scored three out of the four goals on the day that the two of them claimed between them. Shaun Eldridge crossed for Ross’ first and even though United equalised it was Ross again that made it 2-1 at half-time. A volley in off both posts gave Ross his hat-trick and brother Aron ended proceedings with five minutes to go.

Kershaw Premier League Cup

ELY City Reserves had a superb win 2-0 at Eaton Socon to keep local interest in this competition alive.

They stormed through to book a place in the quarter finals at Littleport Town’s conquerors, Whittlesford United. Youngster Lewis Chambers scored again to give city the half-time lead and this was doubled in the second half by Dean Salmons to send the Robins through.

Kershaw Premier League

IT was a different story in the league as Littleport entertained Whittlesford at home in a repeat of last week’s cup defeat.

Town wreaked their revenge in style as they breezed to a 2-0 victory to maintain their unbeaten league record. Michael Ward continued his free-scoring start to the season with another after 53 minutes to break the deadlock and new boy, John Bartlett, grabbed his second of the season on 61 minutes to seal the game for Port.

William Cockell Memorial Cup

THE result of the day went to injury hit Soham United, who were down to almost the bare eleven as they travelled to Cherry Hinton without nine regular members of their squad.

Boss Andy Parker even had to name himself on the bench, as Soham battled to a fantastic 4-3 victory. Hero for Soham was Jim Brown who claimed a magnificent hat-trick on his return from suspension, and it was that man Brown who claimed the first three goals for United in this tie. Hinton were not to be out-done easily though, and with 10 minutes remaining it was 3-3.

Amazingly, Will Tyte hit the winner for iron-willed United after a fantastic run and cross from Ben Howe to take Soham through to the next round.

Early season pacesetters in Senior A, Soham Town Reserves, suffered a shock reverse in this cup as they were beaten 4-1 at Brampton. In a hard fought game that was littered yellow cards, Soham could only muster a Paul Skinner effort.

Strugglers Fordham matched their league form in this competition with a 4-2 loss to Sawston United on a much more encouraging afternoon for the flailing club. A raft of youngsters from the Under 17s were brought in to give new momentum to the losing side, and the gamble paid off as Alex Fox equalised Sawston’s opener to make it 1-1 at the half. United were far too strong in the end for the tiring Fordham youngsters who still managed to force an own goal.

Percy Oldham Cup

ELY City A’s stuttering start to the season continued as they lost 4-2 in the first round of this trophy to West Wratting Reserves. Robert Parker and Ritchie Murfitt were the city scorers.

Div 1B

LITTLEPORT Town Reserves surrendered their first points of the season as they went to Bluntisham Rangers and returned with a 2-2 draw and a well-earned point.

Rangers took the lead and forced two excellent saves from Port keeper Andrew Smart, but young Sean Monigatti found the net to equalise for Town to make it 1-1 at half-time. Chris Lupson then gave Littleport hope of all three points with a strike from the edge of the area only for Rangers to hit back again and take a share of the spoils.

Haddenham Rovers put up a stern fight against high flying March Town United Reserves but could only break through the solid March defence with five minutes to go when Will Ludbrooke struck - this was all too late, though, as they were 2-0 down at the time and United held out for the win.

Lower Junior Challenge Cup

MEPAL Sports roared into the next round of this competition with an emphatic 7-1 victory over Outwell Swifts Reserves. Chris Sylvain was the day’s highest individual marksmen with an impressive four goals, David Fisher bagged a double and Darren Murfitt hit one as Sports sailed past sorry Outwell.

Stretham Hotspurs came through a nailbiting ending to their match at Willingham Wolves as they went through on penalties after finishing 2-2 in normal time. Hotspurs held their nerve, though, to win the shoot out 4-3 to squeeze into the next round.

There was joy at last for Fordham Reserves as they recorded their first victory of the season with a 1-0 win at Division 5C outfit Waterbeach A. Matt Davison marked a rare appearance with a goal to give Fordham hope for the future in what has been a very difficult opening to the season for the club.

Div 3B

LITTLE Downham Swifts won in the league for the first time this season at their new ‘home’ in Pymoor, as they beat visiting Wimblington Reserves 2-1.

Jamie Linney was on the scoresheet for Swifts for the second week in succession and new signing from Littleport Town, Jamie Dews, bagged the other one.

Lower Junior Challenge Cup

SOHAM United Reserves were the only local winners in this competition on Saturday as they edged a five-goal thriller at home to Leverington Sports A.

Craig Allen, Marcus Locke and Ben Reed were the scorers who helped seal this tight victory for United.

Wicken Amateurs gave it a great shot at home to Manea United Reserves, as even though they went one goal behind, Michael Makanza equalised with just five minutes remaining to take it to extra time. Unluckily for Amateurs, United went on to score the winner in that period to send them crashing out of the cup.

Haddenham Rovers Reserves and Witchford ’96 Reserves failed to score as they exited the competition at Coldham and at home to Milton A respectively. Haddenham went down by five at Coldham and Witchford were beaten by two Milton strikes meaning neither side will proceed any further this year.

Div 5C

THERE was a twelve goal thriller between bottom of the pile outfits Little Downham Swifts Reserves and Burwell Swifts A, that ended in astonishing six-all draw to give both sides their first point of the season.

Downham started brightly with good runs from Mark Yardy leading to squandered chances before Dane Smith struck his first for the club with a cool finish. The match then ebbed and flowed throughout with neither team seeming to want to score the decisive goal, but Downham looked in pole position as Gareth Draper and Andrew “Bez” Berry put them 3-1 up.

This was soon overhauled by Burwell, and even though Matt Oakes scored a cool penalty and Draper went on to complete his hat-trick, Burwell recovered to make it six each with the help of a handy deflection off the referee.

Div 5D

A RARE effort after 29 minutes from new signing Nick Marsh got Mepal Sports off to a super start at Walsoken.

They built on that to win 3-1 after Russell Grief scored on 44 minutes before another former Little Downham player, Jordan Lee, also got his first for the club on 48 minutes to finish things off for Mepal.

Ely Crusaders suffered their first defeat of the season at home to Bluntisham Rangers Reserves 3-2 in an exciting game at Paradise. Ali Msabaha and Wesley Reid were both on target for Crusaders but this was not enough as Rangers just edged it in the end. Photo: HELEN DRAKE