Saturday 19th November 2022
UHLSPORT UNITED COUNTIES LEAGUE – PREMIER DIVISION SOUTH
NEWPORT PAGNELL TOWN v COGENHOE UNITED
Willen Rd,
Newport Pagnell,
Milton Keynes,
MK16 ODF
KO 3-pm
Biff’s boys make the short trip across the Buckinghamshire border tomorrow to face fourth place Newport Pagnell Town. The Swans are the current F.A Vase holders after the lifting the trophy at Wembley Stadium last May following a 3-0 victory over Littlehampton Town, but that didn’t stop us doing the double over them as we won both games 3-1. The game at Willen Road came last October and the home side would have been quite happy to go into the break leading through Darryl Smith’s 22nd minute goal, but the Cooks turned things right around in the second half as Josh Adams equalised on 53 minutes and Dylan Wilson put us in front for the first time sixty-seconds later. Wilson added another twenty minutes from time to put the game beyond the Swans to cheer me up as I followed the game on Twitter whilst lying in bed suffering from Covid.
I went down to Willen Road to watch them on Wednesday night and they put on a dominant display to beat Didcot Town in the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup, running out 8-1 winners. They were 5-0 up after 29 minutes in this one as they cut through the visitors defence on numerous occasions in the pouring rain and after a lull, they added three more in the second half before we saw a late consolation for the visitors when McKenzie Heath whipped in what was almost certainly a cross and the wet ball slipped through the gloves of Martin Conway. Annoyed as the keeper was with this, it didn’t really matter as they were already through thanks to a double hat-trick from in-form striker Albie Hall, who added to his single hat-trick in the F.A Vase last Sunday in a 4-1 victory at Baldock Town to make it nine goals in two games. Kieran Barnes and Lewis Markey were their other scorers Wednesday night as Newport rested a few players to give some of their young reserves teamers a run out against a Didcot team that included ten of their development squad who play at two steps lower than the Swans.
The Cooks are enjoying another good run having won their last three games, with a trip to Boston Town in the KO Cup seeing us return home with a 1-0 win thanks to an excellent finish from leading scorer Jessi Obeng who took his seasonal tally into double figures. The Cooks will be without a lot of players tomorrow, but we could well see debuts for Bruce Tsinosis and latest signing Kyle Ansell who has signed today from Wellingborough Town, whilst young attacking propect Kieron Mobbs has been called up for the first time following a number of impressive performances for the ressies.
UHLSPORT UNITED COUNTIES LEAGUE – RESERVE DIVISION
COGENHOE UNITED RESERVES v DESBOROUGH TOWN RESERVES
Compton Park,
Brafield Rd,
Cogenhoe,
NN7 1ND
KO 2-pm
The Reserves have a home game against 6th place Desborough Town tomorrow with our guests currently on a two-match winning run. Last weekend Luke McIlvaney’s ninth goal of the season was enough to give them a 1-0 win at home to Milton Keynes Irish which followed on a 2-0 success at Bourne Town seven days previous. Jack Rayner opened the scoring early on at the Abbey Lawn and McIlvaney doubled their advantage just before the break.
Last Saturday we dropped a couple of points at home to bottom club Raunds Town Reserves here as the Shopmates snatched a point late on through Shaun Melville, who cancelled out Dan Webb’s opener. It should be pointed out that Raunds are much improved over the last few games after bringing in a new management team who have quickly strengthened their playing squad, so despite still being negative on points, they will be confident of pulling themselves up the table now.
Tomorrow’s game is likely to be tough one for the Cooks predominantly young side, but they are growing all the time and are certainly capable of taking something from games such as these and hopefully the consistency will follow as the season progresses.
