Bedfordshire County League

Premier Division

Wednesday 13th April 2022

Kick Off 18.15 Actual 18.13

Stevington 3 Sharnbrook 3, attendance 43

16’ 0-1

31’ 1-1

36’ 1-2

77’ 1-3

80’ 2-3

89’ 3-3 (pen)

@ Pavenham Village Hall & Playing Field

Bedford Road

Pavenham

MK43 7PH

No Admission or Programme.

Tonight’s match was 9th versus 1st in the league table. Sharnbrook are going for back to back titles, having won Division 1 ‘B’ last season, where they were undefeated in their 22 league matches, winning 17 of them.

Stevington matched them early on, but Sharnbrook gradually got on top, going ahead with a shot that seemed to deceive the ’keeper as he was left flat footed as the shot flew into the corner. Stevington levelled with their only shot on target in the first half, half an hour in, with an angled shot beating the ’keeper at the near post. A header from a corner saw Sharnbrook edge back in front before halftime and the points looked safe when a lob from inside the box put them 1-3 up with thirteen minutes left. A short back pass saw a Stevington substitute lift the ball over the ’keeper with his first touch of the ball since coming on, to make it 2-3 just three minutes later and out of nothing they made it 3-3 with a minute left, when they dispatched a penalty, awarded for a push in the back, which was hotly disputed by the visitors, but looked the correct decision to me. No sooner had they levelled, they had a player sin binned and Sharnbrook should have won it in stoppage time, but a great chance was blazed over the bar, when it looked easier to score.

National League U19 Alliance

Division E

Wednesday 13th April 2022

Kick Off 14.15 Actual 14.19

Aldershot Town London U19 1 Worthing U19 13, attendance 9

@ Bannister Sports Centre, 3G Pitch

Uxbridge Road

Harrow

HA3 6SW

No Admission or Programme.

This afternoon’s match was an opportunity to visit a ground that is also home to Middlesex County League Premier Division team F.C. Soma. It is a standard cage set up, with a spectator area along one side, bar a few sections of high fencing. It was also en route, sort of, for my intended evening match in Bedfordshire.

Unfortunately, this league can throw up some absolutely farcical scores, this being one of them, although at least there was an excuse of sorts for Aldershot. Facing a fixture backlog, for some reason they decided it would be a good idea to play a ’double header’ today, using just a squad of 16 or 17 players. They played Carshalton Athletic at 11.15, going down 2-5, before having just over an hours rest, before taking on Worthing. The fact they were playing the team second in the league table, followed by the league leaders, just seems ridiculous and gives a poor impression of how things are run at Aldershot.

It was 0-3 after just nineteen minutes, before Aldershot pulled one back on thirty minutes with the goal of the game, an absolute thunderbolt into the top corner from the edge of the box. It was 1-6 by halftime and the goals kept flowing after the break, as Worthing ran in seven more with very little resistance. The Aldershot ’keeper actually pulled off a fair number of saves and couldn’t be blamed for any of the goals. As for Worthing, they actually used three different ’keepers. The original one went off injured, before two different outfield players had a spell between the sticks. They could have played without a ’keeper and would still have won easily.