County Cup

DYP UNITED 2-2 FC TUMAR

(after extra time; Tumar won 3-1 on penalty kicks)

Sunday 16th December 2012

Leicestershire Sunday Trophy 3rd Round

Braunstone Park [pitch 3], Cort Crescent, Leicester

A glorious but chilly Sunday morning saw yours truly have a wander down to Braunstone Park for a tie in the 3rd round of the Leicestershire Sunday Trophy. This match pitted DYP United of the Leicester Sunday League Division 2 against FC Tumar of the Alliance Football League Division 4.

The first half was a fairly even encounter, though I would say Tumar would be slightly ahead on points. Tumar dominated the second half and if not for the DYP keeper would have won this tie comfortably inside the ninety minutes. They opened the scoring around the hour mark when Andy Lewis pounced on a back pass and poked the ball past the oncoming keeper, but with their only shot on target in the second half, DYP equalised on seventy two minutes. The first period of extra time passed by with either side failing to take a grip on the proceedings, but the second period saw a goal apiece that came within two minutes of each other. Even at the death Tumar could have won it but a shot was cleared off the line. 

Into the penalty shoot out and DYP had their first three kicks saved by the Tumar keeper, while Tumar themselves converted two of theirs. DYP finally got off the mark with their fourth kick, but Tumar were also successful and booked their place in the quarter finals.

The draw for the next round is as follows:

Hinckley Knight v FC Charnwood

Spinney Rovers v FC Tumar

Kilby Town v Monsell WMC

Harborough Hotshots v Desford Athletic or Clarendon Park Rangers

51 photos of the game can be viewed in the slideshow below:

Shoemakers v Addies

FC SHOEMAKERS 09 1-4 ADDIES
Sunday 18th November 2012
Leicester Sunday League Division 1
Braunstone Park [pitch 3], Cort Crescent, Leicester

With nothing going on a Sunday morning decided to walk down to Braunstone Park to watch one of the three games going on. 

For anyone that has not seen the now defunct FC Braunstone Victoria or one of the Leicester & District League sides that use the pitches on a Saturday, there are four railed off pitches adjacent to Cort Crescent going north to south. 

This was a decent game played in glorious sunshine, with the visitors deserving their victory. They created and missed numerous chances in the 1st half but went in at the break one up through a penalty. 

Addies added three more, helped by some dodgy defending before two penalty kicks for Shoemakers. The first one saw the Addies keeper bring down a home player in the box and was lucky to receive only a yellow card. He then made a flying save to rub salt into the wound. A minute later and Shoemakers were awarded another penalty and this time the kick ended in the back of the net. 

50 match photos can be viewed in the slideshow below:

football is back

E.M.R. 6-3 A.F.C. SPORTING CHARNWOOD
Sunday 8th July 2012
Leicester Sunday League Summer Competition Grp B
Guthlaxton College, Station Road, Wigston


My first game of the 2012/13 football season, but for these two teams this will be round 5 in this competition that started back in May, with fixtures resuming last week after a break in June. I did go and watch a game in the opening round of matches which was between these two sides - Charnwood won 3-1 @ Brockington College in Enderby.


The results so far in Group B are as follows:


13/05: AFC Sporting Charnwood 3-1 EMR
20/05: AFC Sporting Charnwood 2-4 Shakespeare; EMR 2-4 Kilby Town
27/05: Kilby Town 1-3 AFC Sporting Charnwood; EMR 0-4 Shakespeare
01/07: Shakespeare 3-2 EMR; AFC Sporting Charnwood 1-3 Kilby Town

	TEAM	PLY	WON	DRW	LST	FOR	AGA	PTS
1	Shakespeare	3	3	0	0	11	4	9
2	Kilby Town	3	2	0	1	8	6	6
3	AFC Sporting Charnwood	4	2	0	2	9	9	6
4	EMR	4	0	0	4	5	14	0

This game was played on the artificial surface at Guthlaxton College and was an entertaining game I will likely to see all season. Both teams were intent on attacking from the start and it took only a few minutes for the opening goal. This came from the visitors from Shepshed, but by the end of the half the game had turned in the favour of EMR who led 3-1. The second half continued in the same attacking vain and five further goals were scored. 


Some photos taken of the game can be viewed in the slideshow below:
 

IQRA

I.Q.R.A. 1-5 Syston Midland Railway

Sunday 11th March 2012

Leicester Sunday League Premier Cup Group C

Evington Park [pitch 1], Leicester, LE5 6DE

With the wife being given another Sunday shift at her work and also with the weather being favourable unlike last Sunday, I decided to take in another Leicester Sunday League game for the second time in three weeks, which like the previous one is at a venue that is not used by a Saturday side.

This fixture pits Division 1 side IQRA against Premier Division Syston Midland Railway, whom happened to be the visiting team at Goscote Spartans two weeks ago. The Premier Cup is one of five cup competitions that the Leicester Sunday League organise. The others are the League Cup, Presidents Cup, Chairman's Cup and Senior Cup. The Premier Cup is organised on a round robin group basis with four groups of four. The other teams in Group C are FC Shoemakers 09 and Fairfield United. There have been three matches played so far in this group:

19/02: Syston Midland Railway 4-3 IQRA

19/02: FC Shoemakers 09 6-1 Fairfield United

04/03: Fairfield United 2-4 IQRA

Evington Park like the name suggests is a public park and is located in the eastern suburbs of Leicester. It is home to two football pitches, cricket, 2 bowling greens and 6 tennis courts. A location of the park can be found here: map link

The game was played in glorious sunshine and was one that kicked off twenty minutes late due to the arrival time of Syston. They also only turned up with ten players. The hosts made the perfect start when they took the lead on four minutes with a superb lob over the visiting keeper. Parity should have been restored shortly afterwards but a Syston goal was wrongly ruled out for offside. There were two Syston players in the box when the ball was played across - one was offside, one not and it was the player who was not that finished the move off. The home side then nearly made it 2-0 but a sweetly struck volley hit one of the uprights. With around fifteen minutes played Syston did get a deserved equaliser when the ball was lobbed over the hesitant IQRA keeper. Two goals in the space of three minutes for the visitors put them in control of proceedings. Firstly on thirty five minutes, following a couple of powerful shots that were saved by the keeper the ball rebounded to their #9 and he finished from a couple of yards out. Then just three minutes later and a through ball was finished coolly past the keeper. Right on the stroke of half time and the visitors had their fourth of the morning and this came from an own goal as a defender turned in a cross at the near post. 


The second half saw only one further goal and this came on the hour mark when Jamie Wood found himself one on one with the IQRA keeper and finished with ease. This is not to say the half was without any incident as the home keeper produced a few superb saves to keep the score down. A flashpoint did occur when an IQRA completely lost the plot. There was a foul in the middle of the mark and the referee blew for a free kick to the home side. A player who was nowhere near the incident started giving the referee a lot of verbals which was completely unjust. When he was calmed down the referee booked him on the condition that he was substituted immediately. A sensible decision in my book. The player then gave his manager a mouthful as well which was undeserved.

websites / sources:

IQRA page (Leicester Sunday League website)

Syston Midland Railway page (Leicester Sunday League website)

A slideshow of photos taken during the game can be viewed below:

Sunday League

GOSCOTE SPARTANS 1-2 SYSTON MIDLAND RAILWAY
Sunday 26th February 2012
Leicester Sunday League Senior Cup
Jubilee Playing Fields, Long Furrow, East Goscote

With the better half working this morning between 10am and 1pm this gave me the opportunity to take in my third Sunday League game this season. The other two were back in 2011 when I saw a cracking Alliance Football League encounter between Sparta Moshdock and Premier Sports Travel. The visitors coming from 2-0 down after just ten minutes to win 3-2 @ Horsewell Lane in Wigston. The second was an FA Cup Sunday 2nd round match between Advance Couriers (Alliance Football League) and Birstall Stamford (Charnwood Sunday League). The match was played at Oadby Town FC and Stamford won 2-1 after extra time.

This game was chosen primarily because it gave me a chance to visit a venue that is not used by a Saturday side. Both sides currently ply their trade in the leagues' Premier Division with the Spartans sitting in seventh place in the eight team table with six points. Their opponents from nearby Syston sit two places and nine points better off. The two sides have already met twice in league action with Syston coming out on top in both of them. The first was a 5-1 victory on the opening day of the season and the second came just four weeks ago when they won by the odd goal in seven. 

Some photos taken at the game can be viewed in the slideshow below:

Websites:

Leicester Sunday League (official)