Les James Challenge Cup (Quarter Finals) Central Ajax 3-2 Earlswood Town Central Ajax managed to turn around a 2-0 half time deficit to progress to the semi finals of the LJ Challenge Cup on Saturday afternoon. A brace from Adam Taylor and an effort from Shaye Eden gave the hosts the victory to be one win away from an appearance at the Bescot Stadium for the final. Goals from Harry Street and Joseph Drake Cervantes gave Earlswood Town a 2-0 half time lead. The Earls will be disappointed with the result and view it as a missed opportunity to progress to the semi-finals. None the less, their having a good season in division two and are capable of finishing in the top half of the table come the end of the season. Central Ajax are comfortably in mid table and have adjusted well to step seven since being promoted from MFL Division three last season. A mid table position in the league and a successful run in the Les James Challenge cup is a real positive for the Warwickshire club. Fairfield Villa 1-0 Littleton Fairfield continued their brilliant home form at Bromsgrove Road with a quality win against Littleton on Saturday afternoon to progress to the semi-finals. A good crowd of 64 supporters turned up to watch the Swans get the win at the weekend. Edward Quilty scored the winner for Fairfield Villa in a tight cup match against Littleton. This was Fairfield’s seventh home win of the season in both the league and LJ cup and if the club can avoid being dragged into a relegation battle it’s been a successful season for the Swans. Littleton can now focus on trying to avoid relegation from Division Two. They have a few games in hand over the teams above them which includes Fairfield and Inkberrow. The Tonboys are currently in 15th and there’s a five-point gap between them and Fairfield with a game in hand to make up. Hampton 2-2 Birmingham United (Hampton win 5-4 on Penalties) Hampton won a brilliant cup tie 5-4 on penalties to progress to the semi finals of the Les James Challenge Cup at Field Lane. The hosts took a 2-0 lead going into half time thanks to efforts from Ciaran Lawless and Hayden Froggatt. Birmingham United showed character in the second half to get back in it and managed to find a late injury time equaliser to send the tie to penalties. Efforts from new signing Urio Hijambazapo and Ellis Vaux got the visitors back into the match in the second half. A quality penalty shootout went to sudden death with it tied at 4-4. Conor Bashford was the shootout hero for Hampton with an excellent save to win the tie 5-4 for the hosts. Birmingham United will feel gutted as they were up 4-2 at one stage in the shootout. The hosts were runners up of the Les James Challenge cup last season at the Bescot against Knowle and are on another good cup run this time around. Birmingham United will feel disappointed but their having a good season in the top half of the table and a top five finish would be an excellent achievement at the end of the season. Division Two Cadbury Athletic 1-4 Redditch Borough Redditch Borough continued their excellent away form in the league with a quality win against Cadbury Athletic at the Bournville Recreation Ground. An eye-catching crowd of 65 supporters turned up to watch Redditch get their seventh away win of the season. The visitors were clinical in the box and went into the half time break with a 3-0 lead. Cadbury managed to get a goal back in the second half through substitute Arron Atkins. Redditch also managed to score another goal with the full-time result finishing 4-1 to the visitors. Redditch Borough are now five points off league leaders Knowle with four games in hand over the Robins. It’s shaping up to be an exciting few months of the season for Redditch Borough supporters who will be hoping of step six football next season. The title race with Knowle is going to be one of the stories of the season in division two. Coventrians 0-2 Coventry Alvis Coventry Alvis got a quality away win against Coventrians at the Colliery Sports Ground to move into the top half of the table. A crowd of 35 supporters turned up on Saturday to watch the visitors get their fifth away win of the season. Second half goals from Jason Evans and Reid Kearns gave the Tankmen the three points against their local Coventry rivals. The visitors are capable of challenging for a top half finish come the end of the season if they can get a run of form going. Despite the defeat, it’s been a good season from Coventrians overall since coming up from MFL Division three last season and they have adjusted to step seven well. They have some breathing space over the relegation places and are 10 points better off than Littleton in 15th. Achieving safety and establishing themselves in division two would be a good season for the club. Inkberrow 2-1 Lane Head Inkberrow got a huge win against Lane Head at Sands Road at the weekend to aid their chances of staying up come the end of the season. William Moore and substitute Ethan McKeown scored the goals for the Eagles to give them the three points. The win gives Inkberrow a bit of breathing space over the relegation places with a seven-point gap over Littleton in 15th. None the less, the Tonboys have six games in hand over Inkberrow and Bolehall Swifts in 16th have seven games in hand so picking up points is crucial to avoid getting dragged into a relegation battle. The Worcestershire club have been getting some eye-catching results over the last month in their fight to stay up. This includes the away win against Cadbury and the 3-3 draw against Alcester Town a few weeks back. Round up feature written by Rhys Beardmore for the Midland Football League Knowle were looking to get a result yesterday afternoon at the Robins Nest to continue their recent impressive record in the Les James Challenge Cup. The Robins were going into this cup tie as the defending champions and were set up for a tough test against Alcester Town. A big strength of Knowle’s season so far had been their home form where they had lost just once from thirteen matches in both the league and LJ cup coming into this match. Alcester Town have been excellent in MFL Division Two this season and are part of the current top five. The Romans are one of the standout teams in Division Two and their away form was encouraging for a potential upset yesterday with four wins from six league matches. The atmosphere around the Robins Nest was friendly and welcoming with excellent clubhouse facilities and a nice set up. It’s a brilliant ground to visit for local groundhoppers across the West Midlands. It can be accessed by getting on either the 87 or 88 bus from Solihull Station, getting off at Lodge Road and walking down Hampton Road to the ground. The programme on offer by the club was brilliant and informative. It provided information on Knowle and what their looking to achieve in the future such as plans for a new ground. It was well put together and provided a bit of background information on both clubs prior to kick off. Starting Line Ups Knowle’s starting line up included Bobby Biddle starting in goal and Christian McArdle captaining the team from central defence. The formation looked like a 4-2-3-1 with Jay Rendell leading the line up front and being supported by Khalil Harrison and Jack Mullen on the wings. There were four changes from the team that started against Fairfield Villa a few weeks ago with Joe Riddiford coming into the team and playing at left back. The starting line up for Alcester Town featured Jordan Elder starting in goal and Ricardo Richards captaining the team up front. The formation appeared to be a 3-4-3 with a front two of Odane Barnes and Ricardo Richards being supported by Chris Dyson in the attacking midfield role. There were four changes from the team that started against Redditch Borough last weekend with Tristan Roberts coming into the team and starting as part of a back three. First Half Knowle started the match brightly and took the initiative in the early stages of the first half. The Robins were creating some good chances around the final third in the opening 30 minutes. Jack Mullen had a good opportunity at the far post with his header going just wide of the bar in the 7th minute. Khalil Harrison also played an excellent ball over the top that found Jack Mullen who worked the ball well in the box before having a shot well saved by Jordan Elder in the 27th minute. Knowle were threatening the Alcester goal with the only thing missing being that composure in the box to take the chances. None the less, the fact they were creating them was encouraging. To the visitor’s credit they were well organised off the ball in the first half and did well to limit the chances in front of goal. Alcester Town’s back three were doing an excellent job of tracking runners and blocking shots to get a foothold in the match. Anthony Miller and Tristan Roberts were reading the game well at the back and managing to cut out Knowle attacks. The Romans also had a threat when going forward in the first half and used the ball effectively to cause Knowle some problems. Odane Barnes was excellent up front and managed to hold the ball up well to get Alcester further up the pitch. The match was evenly balanced in the first half with Knowle marginally shading it in terms of clear-cut chances. A moment of genuine quality gave the Robins the lead in the 35th minute. An excellent defence splitting ball from midfield was played to Jay Rendell. He made an excellent run off the shoulder before accelerating into the box and finishing well into the top left corner to make it 1-0. Knowle were on top at the end of the first half and were looking to get a second in the final few minutes. Alcester did a good job of seeing it out and went into half time only a goal down to set up an intriguing second half. Second Half The second half started with a crucial moment in the match. Knowle managed to make it 2-0 early on which effectively sealed the cup tie. Jay Rendell made a brilliant run at the defence and carried the ball into the final third before shooting into the bottom right corner in the 53rd minute. It was similar to the first goal, with the prolific forward still having a lot to do but making it look easy in front of goal. From that moment on the hosts were in control for the rest of the second half. They were starting to play some good football with a lot of neat build up play in the final third. Jack Mullen was standing out in the second half, and he played some brilliant balls to create space for the hosts. He had a good chance from the edge of the box to make it 3-0 in the 71st minute. To Alcester’s credit they did not give up throughout the match and kept on going despite the scoreline. It was more a case of Knowle playing well rather than Alcester having an off day. The holding midfield of Knowle stood out in the second half with Dylon Bennett regularly winning the ball back and linking up the play well to start off attacks. Knowle managed to get a third goal late on with substitute Joe Sinton scoring from a long-range effort from outside the box. The ball fell to him, and he finished well into the bottom left corner to make it 3-0. The best chance for Alcester to get a consolation came late on when substitute Connor Perry-Holmes had a half chance from the edge of the box. Knowle managed to see the rest of the match out to progress to the semi finals and be one match away from a return to the Bescot. Full Time Knowle were brilliant in this match and played well throughout the 90 minutes against a good team. They have a lot of quality both on and off the ball and are a well-balanced team that are challenging for step six football. It was an encouraging performance yesterday by the Robins. The backline had an underrated game and did well to keep the clean sheet. Lewis Clarke was excellent at the back and was regularly clearing the ball away from danger and cutting out promising Alcester attacks. Lewis Rainey was also good at right back and looked defensively solid. Jay Rendell, Khalil Harrison and Jack Mullen were all brilliant up front and managed to create some good chances for the Robins. Having that quality on the ball could be the difference in tight matches between now and April in the title race for division two. Alcester were ok in this match. They showed a lot of effort and endeavour throughout the afternoon and were undone by Knowle’s quality rather than any glaring mistakes at the back. The Romans have a lot of promising players throughout the team and there were signs of that quality yesterday despite the defeat. Odane Barnes was good up front and managed to bring players into the game to provide Alcester with an attacking outlet. Daniel Sutton looked good from holding midfield and gave the team that composure on the ball when building attacks. Anthony Miller and Tristan Roberts also stood out at the back and were constantly blocking shots and clearing balls into the box. Overall, an enjoyable match yesterday at the Robins Nest and a good advert for step seven football. FT score: Knowle 3-0 Alcester Town Man of the Match: Jay Rendell (Knowle) Attendance: 79 Match report written by Rhys Beardmore for the Midland Football League |
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March 2024
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