First half goals from Lewis Hill and Steve Carroll gave the Vets team a superb win over top flight leaders Tattenhoe Rangers in Milton Keynes.
Sunday 15h January 2023
Milton Keynes League Cup – 2nd Round
Tattenhoe Rangers vs Cogenhoe United
Cogenhoe kicked off this cup game playing against a strong wind on a cold day with the only consolation being that it wasn’t raining just for a change.
It was Rangers who had the first chance in the game with a fine run down their right wing by Ron Sekadde who got into the Cooks penalty box and shot forcing an excellent save from Cogenhoe keeper Stuart Schofield.
The strong wind seemed to be favouring the Cooks who were playing some good football keeping the ball on the ground and it wasn’t long into the game when a cross from the right wing had the Tattenhoe keeper Mark Hogg make an attempt to catch the ball, but it just dipped on him at the last second and he dropped the ball towards his own goal, but was able to recover and stop it in time.
It was one way traffic for a while in the direction of the Tattenhoe goal. Cooks forward Lewis Hill had a long range shot from outside the area that went just over the Rangers crossbar.
The deadlock was broken when Cooks player Craig Smith swung over a cross from the right wing finding team-mate Lewis Hill, who with his back to goal managed to get a volley off to strike the ball towards goal leaving the Rangers keeper stranded and putting the Cooks one nil up in the 9th minute. 0-1
Cogenhoe were not being troubled much in defence for much of the first half. In the 28th minute an attack again from the Cooks right wing saw a fine ball out to Ollie Reynolds who threaded a perfect ball into the Rangers box finding his colleague Steve Carroll who had a simple tap-in from the edge of the six-yard box to double the Cogenhoe goal tally. 0-2
The only other real chance to either side for the rest of the half fell to Tattenhoe with another fine run and shot from winger Ron Sekadde who’s shot was going in for a certain goal when Cooks keeper Stuart Schofield made a superb save by throwing himself to his right and when at full stretch, managed to get a fingertip to the ball to keep it out.
Half-time 0-2.
The second half saw a lot more pressure on the Cooks goal from Tattenhoe with the conditions suiting the team playing against the wind which they were now. Rangers had corner kick after corner kick and it was going to be all the Cooks could do to keep the two nil lead.
Tattenhoe’s number 9, Jim Davey saw his shot going just inches wide. In between all of the attacks from Tattenhoe, whenever the ball was knocked upfield, the Cooks forwards were holding onto the ball okay, a shot from Paul Carroll saw the ball just go wide of the Rangers upright missing by an inch.
Around about the 57th minute, a corner from Tattenhoe saw Rangers defender Andrew Guzenko rise above everyone around him to get his head to the ball putting it into the corner of the Cooks net. 1-2.
We then had a spate of bookings for both sides, for nothing really dirty foul wise. Cogenhoe were hanging on to the lead as best they could but were not helped with injuries to a lot of players and a few walking wounded on the pitch, the 3G pitch was not helping and it was all they could do to keep 11 players on the pitch to see the game out.
This game ended up being a game of two halves with the Cooks defence holding firm and in the end, it was the result that mattered to see them into the next round of the cup.
Final score Tattenhoe Veterans Rangers 1 Cogenhoe United Vets 2.
Cooks; Stuart Schofield, Ricky Smith, Lee Haines (c), Gary Duggan, Dan Duggan, Sam Duggan, Ollie Reynolds, Craig Smith, Steve Carroll, James Lister, Lewis Hill. Subs; Cormac Hamill, Donovan Reed, Mark Dent, Rob Curry, Paul Carroll.
Report and photos supplied by Finbarr Carroll.
