Gloucestershire County League

Les James League Cup 1st Round

Saturday 7th September 2019

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.01

Quedgeley Wanderers 2 AEK Boco 2 (4-5 pens), attendance 26

44’ 0-1

73’ 1-1

77’ 1-2

88’ 2-2

@ Waterwells Sports Centre

Stephenson Drive

Quedgeley

Gloucester

GL2 2AG

No Admission

£1 Programme, 20 pages.

I picked this match as it was the chance to see the league newcomers Quedgeley Wanderers, promoted from the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League, take on the early season table toppers AEK Boco, who have taken 10 points from their opening four games.

Quedgeley are a very good addition to Step 7 football, with a very neatly enclosed pitch and a nice clubhouse that did hot and cold food and drink, with the bacon rolls at £1 (2 rashers) being the pick of the day. Whoever sells their advertising boards has done a superb job, as every space around the pitch is sold, both on the inside and outside of the rail!

AEK Boco dominated the early stages, but just couldn’t score, eventually breaking the deadlock when a left wing cross was volleyed in at the near post just before the interval. Quedgeley came into it more in the second half and were rewarded with an equaliser that was smashed past the ‘keeper from near the penalty spot. Boco were ahead again within a few minutes, when a long ball was controlled on the corner of the 18 yard box and shot into the far corner of the net via the post. A neat one-two on the edge of the box saw Quedgeley nick a second equaliser with a couple of minutes left to send the match to penalties to decide the winner.

Boco went first, and after five kicks each it was 4-4. Boco then scored their next one and Quedgeley missed theirs, and that was it.

A couple of hundred yards from the main pitch, there is another pitch which the Reserves and Third teams use and it is better than many of the grounds that I will visit in England this season !

Today, it hosted Quedgeley Wanderers Reserves 2 Chalford Reserves 7, in a Stroud & District League Division 1 match.

Cheltenham League

Minor Charity Cup 1st Round

Saturday 7th September 2019

Kick Off 12.00 Actual 12.04

Cheltenham United 0 F.C. Lakeside Reserves 2, attendance 7

33’ 0-1

36’ 0-2

@ All Saints’ Academy, 3G Pitch

Blaisdon Way

Cheltenham

GL51 0WH

No Admission or Programme.

I am not a big fan of doing 3G cages at the best of times, especially on a Saturday, preferring to do them for friendlies, rather than ‘waste’ time doing them for competitive games when there are plenty of much better options to chose from. However, with this kicking off at noon, it meant at least I could double it up, rather than make a special journey, and even better, it was only twenty minutes drive from here to one of my favoured choice of games this afternoon, so it fitted the bill perfectly.

Although there is no barrier inside the cage, the distance from the touch line to the fence is quite wide, so no problem standing inside to watch, especially with a crowd as small as today’s.

These two teams are in Division 3, which is not the greatest standard of football, but there was plenty of effort, and loads of chances, more down to poor defending than good attacking play. It was certainly a lot lower standard than the Division 2 match I saw in this league on Thursday night.

Cheltenham dominated the early stages, but conceded two goals in quick succession just after the half hour mark, to trail 0-2 at halftime. Lakeside had the better of the game in the second half, but it might have been a different story if Cheltenham hadn’t put a penalty kick wide of the target just after the hour mark, before hitting the crossbar and post with two other good efforts late on.