Saturday 21st October 2023
F.A VASE – 1ST ROUND
COGENHOE UNITED v EASTWOOD COMMUNITY F.C
Compton Park,
Brafield Rd,
Cogenhoe.
NN3 1ND
KO 3 PM
The Cooks take a break from league action tomorrow as they look to progress in the F.A Vase with a tricky home tie against Eastwood CFC. This will be our first ever meeting against the UCL Premier North side who currently occupy a lofty third place in the table as we face in-form opposition for the fourth game running. The Red Badgers are a relatively new club, having been formed following the untimely demise of a once strong Eastwood Town who played for many years in the Northern Premier League. with the new club starting off in the Central Midlands League in 2014 before progressing to the East Midland Counties League, which was morphed into the new United Counties League Division One format three season’s back.
These days they are managed by Martin Ball and Daryll Thomas who have pulled off a real coup in the summer by securing the services of Aaron O’Connor, a player with some Football League and several hundred National League (formally Conference) games to his name. He has played in the county for both Rushden & Diamonds and Kettering Town in the past and can boast a tally of over 230 goals during his career, having netted 7 so far in 14 games for CFC. He is only third highest scorer this season though with Kyle Tomlin (14) and Tyler Blake (10) ahead of him. They were in action this midweek and progressed in the Notts F.A Senior Cup courtesy of a comfortable 3-0 win at home to Kimberley MW, with Marcus Marshall, Terry Atem and O’Connor the men on target, but they did drop two points last Saturday as they could only draw 2-2 at Skegness Town. O’Connor and Oliver Robinson the scorers at the seaside.
The Cooks will be looking to end their losing streak that has seen them score just once in their last five games with the 3-0 reverse on Tuesday seeing them well beaten. In fairness, we probably should have taken something from three of these games, with just the finishing letting us down, so hopefully the Vase game will be a turning point as the boys take a break from the pressures of our league form.
The game will be decided tomorrow with penalties taking place if the scores are level on the final whistle, with no extra time or replays these days in this competition.
