SATURDAY 25TH MARCH 2023
UHLSPORT UNITED COUNTIES LEAGUE – PREMIER DIVISION SOUTH
DESBOROUGH TOWN v COGENHOE UNITED
SG Pathway Academy,
Waterworks Field,
Braybrooke Rd,
Desborough.
NN14 2LJ
KO 3pm
The Cooks will be hoping to add to the three points they picked up at home to Easington Sports on Tuesday night when they make the short trip to Desborough on Saturday afternoon. Luca Purse headed the only goal of the game against the Banbury club in midweek, but they will be facing up to a Desborough Town team who are in good form and now sit six points clear of the Cooks and have reached the top half of the table. After an indifferent start to the season, they have won seven and drawn one of their last ten games with the most recent being a 2-1 victory at Lutterworth Town, a game that saw young Kettering Town starlet Luca Miller scoring both goals for Ar Tarn. Miller, a teammate of our very own Harry Waple-Moors in the Poppies U18 team this season, has netted 8 goals for Desborough so far this season and has just been awarded a contract with the National League club, but Iain Blaikie tops their scoring charts with 15 going into this game. They have a couple of ex-Cooks in their ranks in the shape of forwards Archie Elmore and Will Russell and they may well feature against us on Saturday.
We have yet to meet in the league this season (they come to Compton Park next Saturday) but we did go head-to-head in the Northants F.A Hillier Senior Cup earlier this season with the Cooks going through 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the ninety-minutes. Former Cooks player Dennis Nkrumah came off the bench to give Ar Tarn the lead after 77 minutes, but fellow sub Pharrell Anderson took the tie to penalties with a late equaliser. On the subject of Pharrell, he has joined up with Ben Gough at AFC Rushden & Diamonds on dual registration so it’s possible we may not see much more of him in a Cooks shirt.
Our last trip to the Northamptonshire town was on the opening day of last season and Craig Adams got his short rein in the hot seat get under way with a convincing 3-0 victory. Jack Daldy netted twice that day, with Dylan Wilson scoring in between the ex-Cobblers youth team player’s double strike. A repeat of this would be very nice indeed.
UHLSPORT UNITED COUNTIES LEAGUE – RESERVE DIVISION
DAVENTRY TOWN RESEVRES v COGENHOE UNITED RESERVES
Elderstubbs,
Browns Lane,
Daventry.
NN11 4 NS
KO 2pm
The Cooks travel over to Daventry for the second time this season, but will be hoping for any heavy rain showers to avoid the area so as to rule out any repeat of the late call off this time around. Daventry sit two places above the Cooks in 9th place, but the recent budget cut at the club has seen a lot of their reserve team players stepping up into the first team which I assume has left them with a very young and inexperienced squad at this level. Last time out they lost 3-2 at strugglers Rothwell Corinthians, although they did win 3-1 at Whitworth the week before. In the first game after losing their squad to the Northern Premier League team, they were thrashed 1-9 at home by Milton Keynes Irish, but they seemed to have steadied the ship since that miserable day.
The game at Compton Park earlier in the season was an entertaining one which the visitors won 4-2. Lee Felgate and Dan Webb were on target for the Cooks, but former Cogenhoe players Jimmy Lovell (2) and Oli Emery were joined on the scoresheet by Harrison Paposeco to give Daventry the win. The Cooks had a friustrating afternoon last weekend when torrential rain brought their game at Desborough to an early conclusion. Sam Harris had scored the Cooks goal, but his effort was chalked off when the referee had little choice but to abandon the game with 15 minutes left to play.
