Press Reports

By

Bill Baldwin

Gravesend Football League Press Officer
Text Box: GRAVESEND FOOTBALL LEAGUE Results & Report for Saturday 20th September 2008 Kent Junior Cup Group ‘B’ Charlton Athletic Community 4 v. 1 AFC Welsh Tavern (Sat) The Rising Eagles 3 v. 2 Bexley Woodlands Athletic 1 v. 2 AFC Sydenham Kent Junior Cup Group ‘C’ Bean 1 v. 4 Bexlians Reserves Culverstone United 4 v. 3 Chistlehurst Dynamoes NK Aces 3 v. 1 AFC Welsh Tavern Reserves (Sat) Radius 0 v. 7 Stone C&I Premier Division Craggs Farm 6 v. 0 Lullingstone Castle Horton Kirby 0 v. 7 The Old Prince of Orange Guru Nanak Reserves 2 v. 4 Swan Valley Division One Meopham 6 v. 0 Peacock Celtic Waterloo 1 v. 6 Viewpoint Reserves Division Two Ash Green 1 v. 4 Earl Grey F.C. Stone 0 v. 0 Oakfield Fleetway Printers 8 v. 0 Meopham Reserves Real Man of Kent 1 v. 3 AZ 82 Hospitals Cup Competition Halls 1 v. 5 Viewpoint Gravesend League teams had a mixed day in the preliminary round of the Kent Junior Cup with four victories and four defeats from seven games played. Kent Junior Cup Group ‘B’ In Group B there was a repeat of last season's Group C final between Charlton Athletic Community and AFC Welsh Tavern (Sat) and Welsh again lost out, this time 4-1 with their consolation coming from Lee Biggs. The Rising Eagles had a superb 3-2 win at home to Bexley at Kings Farm. They went 1-0 up with a Josh Taylor goal, but their opponents equalised before the break and went ahead early in the second half. But Eagles were not to be denied and two goals in a minute from Bradley Cross and Paul Adams put the cap on an excellent performance. Woodlands Athletic went down 2-1 at home to AFC Sydenham and, given their start to the season, were disappointed not to progress further in Group B. Kent Junior Cup Group ‘C’ The surprise in Group C came when in-form Bean lost 4-1 at Bexlians Reserves, their lone reply coming from Craig Deamer. Culverstone United entertained Chislehurst Dynamoes from the Bromley & District League and did the Gravesend League proud by winning a close encounter 4-3. The Culverstone scorers were Andy Dymott (2), Aaron Salter and Seb Jacques. NK Aces were playing in the Kent Junior Cup for the first time and went into the next round after beating fellow Gravesend League side AFC Welsh Tavern (Sat) Reserves 3-1 at Thong Lane. Aces took the lead in the fourth minute when Terry Wollen got on the end of a Bobby Kyla free-kick. Paul Sandhu, who has been in excellent form this season, got in on the act by beating two defenders and netted form an acute angle before he added his second after the interval to seal the win. A young Stone Club &Institute team travelled to Orpington to play Radius and kept up their impressive start to the season with an excellent 7-0 victory. Stuart Onyett opened the scoring and Billy Kingwell added a second before half-time. The second period belonged to Gary Norman, who scored four times to give his side an emphatic win, with an own goal completing the scoring. Premier Division In the Premier Division, out of form Lullingstone Castle travelled to leaders Craggs Farm and came away on the wrong end of a 6-0 score line. This defeat kept them rooted to the foot of the table, while Craggs stay top with a 100 per cent record to date this season. Craggs' goals came at regular intervals from Adam Burton (2), Rob Clerkson, Steve Cook, Dmitri Blowers and Craig Nightingale. Guru Nanak Reserves were playing their first match of season and were involved in an excellent game with Swan Valley at Kings Farm. Swan had played well in their previous games this season without reward, but they took the lead when James Millen scored direct from a corner. Bill Friend equalised for the Gurus before half-time, but in the second half Graham Runham (2) and Steve Baker added to the Swan score. Guru's only response came courtesy of a second from Friend. Horton Kirby started their season with a 7-0 home defeat against a strong Old Prince of Orange team. Prince's goals came from Marc Bruce (3), Mark Laver (2), Simon West and Matthew Dunford, who beat three Kirby players and lobbed the keeper from 25 yards. Division One In Division One, Meopham won for the second week running by beating Peacock Celtic 6-0. Viewpoint Reserves went to the top of the division with a resounding 6-1 away win at Waterloo. Already 2-0 up at the break thanks to Chris Stapley and Nathan Taylor, they added four more in the second half with Steve Coyne netting a hat-trick and Paul Waghorne adding a single. Waterloo's lone reply came from Adam Smith. Division Two Division Two leaders Ash Green were at home to Earl Grey and suffered their first reverse of the season in a 4-1 defeat. However, they stay top while Earl Grey are up to third after the win thanks to goals from veteran Gary Aldous, Nathan Harpum (2) and Jack Woollcott. The deadlock could not be broken at Knockhall Road in the meeting between F.C. Stone and Oakfield, the game finishing 0-0. Fleetway Printers reached the heady heights of second in the table following an excellent 8-0 win at home to Meopham Reserves. They haven't been this high in the League in living memory and the table will make happy reading for them. The game was a personal triumph for Darren Simms, who scored six times to make it 10 in his last two games. Printers' other goals came from Simon Collins and Brett Blake-Morris. AZ 82 were away to Real Man of Kent at Thong Lane and won 3-1 in an entertaining game courtesy of a Paul Hopper brace and a single from Tony Rossi. Man of the match was AZ 82 debutant Dean Boniface. To their credit, Real Man of Kent never gave up and were rewarded with a Carl Morson goal. In the Hospitals Charity Cup Competition, Premier Division champions Viewpoint travelled to Halls from the Kent County League and came away victorious 5-1. Viewpoint's goals were shared by Aaron Brown, Martin Brown, Gary Martin, Karl Hotchkiss and Paul Jackson.