Pirates and Brickhill enjoy County Cups success

IT was an excellent weekend for the Michael R Peters Bedford Sunday League when Brickhill Wanderers ‘A’ and Shillington Pirates won the two Junior County Cups.

Brickhill, being a new club to the league in the Under 21 Division, won the Beds FA Sunday Centenary Cup while Shillington Pirates, in their second year but playing against an experienced St Joseph’s Reserve side, lifted the Beds FA Sunday Lower Junior Cup.

Brickhill Wanderers beat AF Mato from the league’s Fifth Division 5-2. This was a keenly-fought contest with Brickhill coming out on top with two goals from Jamie Felts, and the other scorers were Leslie Dwanena, Jordan Jarrold and Jacob Ottley.

Shillington Pirates had a tougher-looking task against an experienced St Joe’s side, going two goals down in the first ten minutes at the Kempston Rovers’ Hillgrounds.

The Pirates began to play some better football after the initial settling-in period and it was Iffa Slough who brought the Pirates back to life with a breakthrough goal when he parted the Joes’ defence to slot the ball past the keeper on the stroke of half time.

Shillington came out in the second half with all guns blazing and levelled the tie within ten minutes when a deep corner was headed back across the goal for Dean DaRoche to get the final touch to send the ball into the net. With the 90 minutes approaching the Pirates pressed for a winner but it did not come.

St Josephs took the lead again ten minutes into extra time when they were awarded a penalty and it looked all over for the Pirates, but with the clock ticking down towards the end of extra time Adam Larsen fired a volley straight through the Joe’s keeper to square the game.

In a last attempt to find a winner, Shillington raided one last time and forced a mistake from the St Joseph’s defence resulting in a foul on Luke Webb on the edge of the penalty box. And Adam Larsen stepped up and lashed the free kick into the top corner to ensure the trophy ended up back at Shillington.

Last Friday it was Sandy Titans who suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Westoning Gijon Recreation Club in the M&DH Insurance Cup Final.

The Titans took an early lead with a well-taken header and Westoning had chances to equalise but were unable to turn those chances into goals. Westoning dominated the second half and eventually levelled the score with a great finish from Glenn Robinson.

There were several penalty appeals by Westoning as they pressed for a lead but they were frustrated, especially when they went down to ten men under much controversy. Extra time came and a spectacular goal by Westoning was disallowed, but the constant pressure on Sandy told when the winning goal came from Sam Maelzer who netted from a corner.

In the Under 21 Division, Barton Rovers and Hitchin Town must be getting fed up with meeting in their competitions. In their latest contest in the Group stage of the Extra Competition, Hitchin took the spoils winning the game 3-2.

Barton started well and Dominic Benmoussa headed the first goal for Rovers. Barton pressed further and were rewarded with a two goal lead produced by Daniel Bada who needed two tries to beat the Hitchin keeper.

The second half was different in that Hitchin had a shot on goal. Hitchin further improved and poor defending by Barton gifted Hitchin their first goal.

The Barton keeper, Dean Carney, then brought down a Hitchin player and Town levelled the score. Barton were again found wanting at the back when a foul just outside the box resulted in a free kick which made the final score 3-2 to Hitchin. Man of the match for Barton was Dominic Benmoussa.

In the Third Division, Old Boys signed off yet another season with a 6-0 rout of Dunton Reserves. Jamie Lingard scored twice on his debut for Old Boys, with the other goals coming from old stagers Michael Fry, Ian Perkins, Andrew Arnold and Scott Norman.

Wells Stars had a rare win, beating Meltis Rangers 2-1 away from home. Chris Askew scored a penalty and Craig McLellan scored the other goal for Wells Stars.

Related topics: