Sunday 30th January

Outstanding 4th round ties:

Britannia United 0 Knighton Arms 4

Salisbury Athletic v Mariners - match postponed

4th round review

Comets Sports Club 3 Belstone 1
Comets from the Berkhamsted league extended their unbeaten run to 15 games, when they beat their fellow Hertfordshire County FA rivals Belstone from the Harrow Sunday Challenge league.

Comets goals were scored by Luke Sharpley, Stuart Deaton and a penalty from Adam Martin. Mark Kirby was on target for Belstone.

Bedfont 2 Wonford United 1
Laurie Sheehan, who was making his FA Sunday Cup debut for Bedfont Sunday, opened the scoring on 34 minutes, when he cut inside his man and rifled home to give Bedfont the lead.

Wonford’s Ben Murby levelled before the break and his team were indebted to their keeper, who made a series of impressive saves in the 2nd half from Bedfont’s Adam Turner, Laurie Sheehan and Joe Johnson, before Ricky Owen’s thunderous free kick ricocheted off the cross bar. Ricky Farnden was on hand to tap the rebound home, only to see his effort ruled out for offside.

Laurie Sheehan then beat the Wonford full back on the edge of the box and thumped home the winner for Bedfont.

Wonford player-manager Ryan Harris was able to take the positives out of the defeat "I'm happy because it was only our first season in it," he said. "We'll enter again next year, but now we know what to expect. It's a great cup to be in and we can definitely go further next time.

Lobster 0 Salisbury Athletic 4 – 3rd round
Salisbury Athletic and Lobster were finally able to play their outstanding third round tie against Lobster.

Lobster were the better team during the first half, yet found themselves 2-0 down at half time! Shaun Chart and Jamie Hay providing Salisbury with the half time lead.

Joe Rimmer made it 3-0 and this was followed by an outstanding goal from Lee Mullins. Lobster also had a player dismissed, to add to their woes.

Queens Park 1 Paddock 2
A goal from Michael Reeves was not enough for Queens Park to overcome their rivals from across the river, as the Birkenhead side were beaten 2-1 by Paddock.

Salisbury Athletic and Mariners and Britannia United and Knighton Arms will hope to beat the weather and play their outstanding 4th round matches later today.

4th round draw

Ties to be played on 20th February (14:00 kick off):

Oyster Martyrs v Club Lewsey
Salisbury Athletic or Mariners v Northampton Duke of York
Britannia United or Knighton Arms v Paddock
Bedfont Sunday v Comets Sports Club

The 2 outstanding 4th round games will be played next Sunday. Both have a 13:00 kick off.

As predicted, the quarter final line up will include 3 teams from Liverpool. I'm sure that Sunday Cup followers on Merseyside will be delighted that their teams have managed to avoid each other and that an all Liverpool final remains a possibility.

Results for 23rd Jan

3rd round
Lobster 0 Salisbury Athletic 4

4th round
Oyster Martyrs 7 Sunderland RCA Barnes 1
Queens Park 1 Paddock 2
Duke of York 2 Travellers 1

4th round preview

I was hoping to feature more 4th round ties than I have but sadly, another busy week has meant I was only able to spend a limited amount of time putting this together.

Whilst the northern half of the draw is dominated by Scouse sides, the
bottom half of the draw remains wide open.

We are guaranteed to have two Scouse teams in the last eight and I believe
there will be three, as Oyster Martyrs should be too strong for Sunderland
RCA Barnes, especially with home advantage.

If Oyster do make it through, it will be Merseyside's best showing in the quarter finals since 2004-05, when Sunday Cup giants Canada Edinburgh Park and St Aloysius E (formerly Eagle) played each other, whilst Seaburn beat Hetton Lyons at Formby. Seaburn had just changed their name that season from Dickie Lewis and are now known as Salisbury Athletic.

1993 runners up Bedfont and 2003 champions Northampton Duke of York will both be hoping to take another stride towards reaching a second final.

Duke of York are making a welcome return to the competition after a layoff of five years and face experienced Sunday Cup campaigners Travellers from the Birmingham Festival league, in an all Midlands affair.

Duke of York were unbeaten for the first half of the season but have recently suffered two cup setbacks, as they lost to league rivals AC Squirrels in the Northamptonshire County FA Sunday Cup and to the wonderfully named Byron Leverkussen in the Goodliff Cup. They will be hoping to avoid an unwanted cup exit hat trick this weekend.

Travellers reached the semi-finals in their first season, back in 2002-03, where they faced…Duke of York!! Travellers were 2-0 up with just 15 minutes remaining, yet needed a last minute equaliser to force a 3-3 draw, after Duke of York had launched a stunning comeback. Travellers eventually lost the game 5-3.

4th round draw - Sunday 23rd January
Oyster Martyrs v Sunderland RCA Barnes
Queens Park v Paddock
Northampton Duke of York v Travellers
Comets SC (Berkhamsted - Herts) v Belstone (Harrow - Herts)
Club Lewsey (Nth Home Count - Beds) v Kingshurst Sporting Club
Bedfont Sunday (West Middlesex) v Wonford United (Exeter)
Britannia United (Aylesbury - Berks & Bucks) v Knighton Arms (Southampton)

Lobster or Salisbury Athletic v Mariners

Salisbury Athletic...the best programme in the FA Sunday Cup?

I've seen plenty of FA Sunday Cup programmes over the years and the majority tend to be a token 4 page effort, which contains a list of players available from both sides together with a brief history of the teams competing.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with this, as it satisfies the requirements placed on the home side to produce a programme. You also have to bear in mind that playing in the Sunday Cup is probably the only time that most teams issue a programme, so its perhaps unrealistic to expect them to issue anything else.

There are, however, a handful of sides over the years that have gone that extra yard or two and produced an excellent Sunday Cup programme that would rival and indeed better, the efforts of many a semi-pro Saturday team.

Salisbury Athletic are one of those sides and regularly issue one of the best programmes that I've ever seen from a Sunday team. The programmes are superbly produced with high production standards used. They are cram-packed with interesting and informative articles, which are complemented by the quality of glossy paper used.

Salisbury are a club that have definitely embraced the Sunday Cup. Their blog site (sollyblog.blogspot.com) contains several detailed match reports and even video highlights (which they have also posted on youtube).

Salisbury are at home to Lobster on Sunday. The game will take place at Bootle, kick off 13:00. Salisbury's secretary and programme editor, Ian Porter, has told me that they will be issuing a programme for this game.

Back issues are also available from Ian, who can be contacted at: 65 Evered Avenue, Liverpool, L9 2AE or via email on iporter_radical@yahoo.com

Based on the programmes I have seen, I can't think of one team that has consistantly produced a better programme than Salisbury.

In fact, the only programme that could better Salisbury's (in respect of FA Sunday Cup content) that I have seen, would be those produced by Mark Kettlety. Mark is an expert on the Sunday Cup and used to produce the semi final programmes in the early 2000's. He also used to write the excellent Sunday Only magazine. He produces an assortment of programmes for various teams and County FA's up and down the country.

First FA Sunday Cup game played midweek?

History could well have been made at Formby tonight, where Mariners of the Ormskirk & District league beat Alder (the last surviving entrants from the Liverpool Business Houses league) 4-0, in what could have been the first Sunday Cup game to have been played midweek.

I've watched games in the Sunday Cup since 1984 and I've never heard of any game being played midweek before. There were plans to do this last season, when Unity Nirankari and Club Lewsey were due to meet at Hitchin Town on Thursday 3rd December but like most games at that time, it fell foul of the weather.

Mariners will face the winners of Lobster and Salisbury Athletic, who play their outstanding 3rd round tie this coming Sunday at Bootle.

Many thanks to Ian Porter for letting me know this result

Outstanding 3rd round ties

Mariners v Alder could well become the first ever Sunday Cup game to be played midweek, as the FA have announced that their delayed 3rd round game will be played on Thursday night at Formby, kick off 19:00

The winners of that game will play Lobster or Salisbury Athletic, who will meet at Bootle this coming Sunday.

I'll preview some of the 4th round games later on this week.

Sunday 16th January

Both of the outstanding 3rd round ties between Lobster and Salisbury Athletic and Mariners and Alder were both postponed today.

Mariners and Alder hope to play their game midweek, with Burscough and Formby mentioned as possible venues. Further updates to follow.

3rd round review

With six of the eight outstanding 3rd round ties being played on Merseyside, the focus this weekend was clearly on an area that has, over the years, become synonymous with the Sunday Cup.

No prizes for guessing which side made the headlines this week, it was, of course, Paddock who came from 2-0 down to beat current holders and Sunday Cup legends, Hetton Lyons 3-2.

This was the second time that Paddock had faced Hetton, the first was a semi final three years ago, when Hetton emerged victorious by 2-0. According to Paddock’s manager, Billy Owens, his side were unable to recover from Hetton’s second goal, which was scored just before half time.

However, this time around it was Paddock who were able to score a crucial goal shortly before the interval and they retained the momentum in the second half to secure a memorable comeback.

Despite winning the Sunday Cup 3 times, Hetton have never managed to retain it and if an existing trend continues, then Paddock will go on to win this season’s competition, as the two sides to defeat Hetton as reigning holders (Coundon Conservatives and Scots Grey) went on to be crowned champions themselves.

I’d normally write a small match report on this game but as we all know, actions speak louder than words, so move aside Match of the Day, its time to watch some proper football for a change!!

Many thanks go to our friends at Salisbury Athletic, who have posted 12 minutes of highlights on Youtube (see link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARxYkEK84oU

Eden Vale 2 Queens Park 3
There was late drama in an all Merseyside affair at Bootle, when Birkenhead side Queens Park were awarded a penalty in the final minute of normal time!

Trailing 2-1 to Ormskirk & District outfit Eden Vale, Park were indebted to the cool head of Lee Gibson, who slotted the spot kick home and sent the game in to extra time.

Gibson repeated his feat five minutes later, when his second successful penalty was enough to earn them a home tie against Paddock.

Wonford United 3 v Bluebird United 1
The pride of Devon Sunday football was at stake at Tiverton (a mere two hundred and forty miles south of Merseyside) where Exeter & District leaguers Wonford entertained the Plymouth & West Devon Combination’s Bluebird.

The visitors took the early initiative when Levi Landricombe (Bluebird’s hat-trick hero from round 2) had a shot well saved after just four minutes.

However, it was Wonford who opened the scoring, when player-manager Ryan Harris scored from the penalty spot on 15 minutes.

Bluebird only just failed to restore parity early in the second half, when Landricombe's free-kick just went wide. Their task did not get any easier, when just two minutes later, they had Lee Rundle sent off.

Wonford doubled their lead just before the hour mark through Ben Murby and with the one man advantage; they now started to look the more comfortable side.

However, Bluebird were not out of it yet and reduced the arrears through a powerful strike from Landricombe.

The killer goal came in the last 10 minutes, when Jamie Mudge, a former Tiverton player, scored Wonford’s third goal.

3rd round match report and result

Oyster Martyrs 5 Huddersfield Irish Centre 3

Another cracking game served up by two very good sides. What a shame it was only a 3rd round tie and not a semi final.

Oyster started much the stronger and could have taken the lead after 8 minutes, when Graham McLachlan in the Irish goal produced a suprerb save to keep the score goalless. However, he was powerless to do anything about Leighton McGivern's 25 yard wonder strike just 2 minutes later. McGivern was fouled on the edge of the box and picked himself up to hammer the ball home in emphatic style.

McGivern was almost unplayable in the first half and was simply head and shoulders above anybody else on the park.

Irish managed to restore parity 10 minutes later, when 17 year old left winger Danny Naidole (whose performances this season have attracted the attention of Huddersfield Town) cut in from the left and his deceptive strike nestled in the far corner of the Oyster goal.

McGivern was involved again a few minutes later, when the Irish keeper made another great (one-handed) stop.

Oyster regained the lead on 30 minutes, when some more McGivern trickery resulted in his cross being well controlled and drilled home from close range by Thomas (cousin of Wayne) Rooney.

It took a desperate tackle just 5 minutes before half time from the Irish skipper Nick Jaggar, to deny McGivern a second goal, after he had rounded the Irish keeper. HT 2-1.

Oyster appeared to have put the game to bed just 10 minutes after the restart, when Thomas Rooney latched on to a through ball in the Irish half and bore down on goal, despite having his shirt pulled, he coolly rounded the keeper and tapped the ball in to extend the lead to 3-1.

Irish were then handed a huge slice of luck, when after appearing well offside, they reduced the arrears to 3-2, through Anthony Haigh. Unbelievably, it was 3-3 just two minutes later. Irish pressured the Oyster defence down the left wing and managed to centre the ball, which was then shot goalward and deflected in off Paul Pyke.

Oyster made it 4-3 with 15 minutes remaining, when Rooney's well struck effort completed his hat trick. Oyster should have added a 5th in the 87th minute, when after some good work down the left, the recently introduced substitute centre forward, managed to blaze the ball over from just a few yards out, despite being completely unmarked!!

The game was in to injury time when the last goal was scored. Rooney side footing home from close range.

Other Results
Paddock 3 Hetton Lyons 2
Sandstone 0 Sunderland RCA The Barnes 2

3rd round postponement

One game already off is the game between Lobster and Salisbury Athletic (thanks to Ian Porter for this info).

They will now try again next week, with Salisbury hoping to stage the tie at Bootle.

I'm still hoping to watch Oyster Martyrs and Hudds Irish, I'll update the blog with more news/results tomorrow.