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 East Cheshire Football  League.

Round up of this weekend’s games

With the top half of the FA Saturday Cup First Round ties  already completed back in October  this week saw the completion of Round One   with  the bottom half of the draw  taking place.

Taking place on Wednesday night  under floodlights at their Cresent Road ground,  Congleton Town Reserves  proved too strong for their opponents from the East Cheshire League, Old Alts. Rick Williamson led the way for the Bears  grabbing a hat-trick with Matthew Swann and Macc FA Youth representative  player Josh Sneddon also on the score sheet. Old ALTS scorers were Mike Long and John Ball.

At Congleton Road , two first half goals from striker Nathan Hulley laid the foundations  for  Boarhound to progress into Monday’s draw for Round Two. Keen to avenge a league defeat earlier in the season in which they played much the better football, the home side  won this tie with four goals in the opening period.  In between Hulley’s brace came goals from two of the more experienced members of Boarhound’s team, Wayne Shufflebotham and Ian Potts who have hit five a piece in all competitions this season. Nomads, not surprisingly, were always in the game and with new signing Callum Lofthouse scoring twice they have again found a potent goal threat- unfortunately on the day though, Boarhound were just too good.

High Lane’s manager Tony Mitchell is worried his team are beginning to become despondant after another heavy defeat, this week  to Wilmslow Sport. 4-0 down at half time and having lost midfielder James Spencer to a dislocated knee his team were systematically pulled apart by a very efficient Wilmslow outfit. Tom Gill scored twice for the second week in a row and he was  joined by Basil Hume, James Ingham and Danny Smith.

Having already lost to AZ’s East Cheshire league team it was never going to be a comfortable afternoon for Mary Dendy against  their  Cheshire league side. The difference was glaringly obvious and Mary Dendy’s Secretary Muttley O’Neill mused..” I would  like to say how much better club AZ were..how much more efficient they operated as a team..it was like they were in a different league….which of course they are!”  Scorers for Club AZ – Harry Wheatman  3,  Neil O’Brian  2,  Craig Scott,  Andy Quigley, Joey  Hunter, Paul Haydock and Scott Davies, their goalkeeper who made it 10-0 from the penalty spot.

Club AZ reclaimed top spot with a 3-1 victory against a game Poynton Kings side at Mulberry Sports Centre for  whom captain Tom Hopkins led  by example with another battling midfield display and an equalising goal to boot after AZ had taken the lead  following an own goal. It took two goals from second half substitutes Craig Sharples and Paul Bethal to finally secure all three points.

Old Alts  Vets  went into cruise control to gain their first league win of the season against in form Juno.  Manager, Dave Stephens, was without his assistant Chris Hill, who is recovering from his second hip replacement operation.  He was also without previous seasons’ leading goal scorer Ian Hunt but this did not prevent the Veterans taking the lead after only ten minutes through Niall Griffin.  The lead was consolidated by a well-taken goal from the ever-dependable Tony Dawson to put the Veterans 2-0 up at half time.  Tony Dawson extended the lead half way through the second half.  But Juno were not prepared to just roll over and reduced the deficit with a fine goal from Andrew Lee.  In fact, they were disappointed not to get a second, when referee Bill Hines disallowed a goal for a push on Gary Fittes.  The Vets took advantage of this break and scored a fourth through Andy Graham, bringing his total for the season to four, on level terms with the other scorers, Niall Griffin and Tony Dawson.  Manager, Stephens, was well satisfied with his team’s performance and awarded his man of the match award to Tony Dawson, who is rapidly accelerating towards his 60^th birthday.

Draw specialists Poynton and Old Alts Youth met at a wet Deva close and true to form the result was a very entertaining 2-2 draw. Poynton’s top scorer John Cairns gave them the lead in the first half, a lead they held onto until five frantic minutes early in the second half  when Tom Masey  and Tom Porter put the visitors in front.  Rob Richards made some fine saves  to keep Poynton at bay as they pressed for the equaliser but even he couldn’t keep out Cairns as he stole in with twenty minutes remaining to make it 2-2.