Fourth Round Review

Hetton Lyons 4 Chapletown Fforde Grene 7 AET
Four time champions Hetton Lyons suffered the heaviest defeat in their 12 seasons in the Sunday Cup, as they surrendered a 3-0 lead to their Leeds based opponents, Chapeltown Fforde Grene.

Hetton were coasting with a little over 30 minutes remaining and on course to reach their seventh quarter-final. From somewhere, Fforde Grene managed to turn the tie completely on its head and amazingly, they scored seven unanswered goals (three to force extra time) in what must rank as one of the greatest come backs in Sunday Cup history, to secure their third appearance in the last eight.

I saw Fforde Grene in the previous round at Alder and they were missing key players, Dempsey Smith (ex Bradford Park Avenue and Garforth Town) and Joel Hughes, who has scored 19 times for Northern Counties East side Yorkshire Amateur this season. Both strikers bagged a brace in this game. Fforde Grene’s other goals were scored by Daniel Freeman, Dan Sheriffe and Chris Hitchings.

Connor Winter, Ellison and Price were on target for Hetton.

Crawley Green 4 The Windmill 1

The Windmill were hoping for a repeat of their third round heroics, when their long trip to the Home Counties was rewarded with a convincing win at former champs, St Josephs (Luton). The Devon side got off to a great start, as they pressurised Crawley Green’s defence straight from the kick off and Levi Landricombe latched onto Jimmy Alexander's through ball to give them a deserved lead.

This was clearly the wake-up call that Crawley Green needed and from the resultant kick off the Bedfordshire side immediately responded with a goal from James Potter.

The score remained at 1-1until midway through the second half, when Crawley Green’s manager, Craig Freeman, introduced Liam Toomey into the game. Within a few minutes Toomey had created two chances for his team. Crawley’s midfield then came into its own on a very heavy pitch.

Mark Bunker came close with a header from a Toomey pass. In the 75^th minute Danny Watson sprung The Windmill’s off-side trap and from a pin point chip over the defence from Mark Bunker, Watson beat two chasing defenders to slot the ball between the keepers’ legs.

Bunker then succeeded in chipping a ball over the defence with James Potter level with the last defender, about 40 yards from goal. Potter then only had the keeper to beat which he did, to extend Crawley’s lead.

With The Windmill pressing to reduce the arrears, a magical run from Liam Toomey down the left wing saw his cross from the goal line tapped in by Danny Watson to secure the victory.

Black Bull 1 Allerton 4

Connor McCarthy was the main difference between the two sides in this all Liverpool & District league encounter. Black Bull could not contain a rampant McCarthy, who scored all four Allerton goals.

The teenage striker plays for Skelmersdale on a Saturday and Allerton, the 2003 runners up, will be hoping that his sparkling form continues in the quarter-final, where they play host to Chapeltown Fforde Grene, who have never lost a Sunday Cup tie on Merseyside.

New Salamis 2 Barnes Albion 1 AET

Another former finalist bit the dust, as 2013 runners up, Barnes Albion of the West Middlesex league lost to KOPA league team New Salamis. Nick Muir was the Salamis hero, as his goal in extra time booked their first appearance in the quarter-final. Their other goal came from Richard Georgiou.