Rosegreen on mark for Lion
Rosegreen on mark for Lion
FESTIVAL LEAGUE: Lion Rangers earned a quarter final place in the FA Sunday Cup with a superb 4-1 away win over Walthamstow-based Leyton Argyle.
Rosegreen on mark for Lion
The home side put Lion under heavy pressure before Mark Rosegreen gave Rangers a 29th minute lead.
A tremendous double save by Paul Hayward shortly afterwards maintained the lead, before after 42 minutes, a fine four-man move down the left ended in Rosegreen's second.
Two fine solo goals from Kevin Francis put the game beyond the reach of the home side before Lion's rearguard was breached for the only time just before the end.
Sandwell have had a miserable 1987 in the premier Division, anchored at the foot of the table with only two draws to show for their efforts, but 1988 has started in great style with a 3-2 victory over league leaders Lodge Cottrell.
Slack defensive work twice let in Neil Adams to score for Sandwell, but Lodge equalised on both occasions, first through John Brooke and five minutes from time through Steve Rhodes.
A draw looked a certain until a last minute penalty gave Richie Southall the chance to get the winner.
The majority of games fell victim to the bad weather, but several of the sides who have been struggling turned in good performances.
Another of these was Abbey Mechanical who did themselves some good with a 1-0 win over Stanley Towers earned by a second half goal from Brown, after which they needed to put in some sterling defensive work to hang on to their advantage.
Junior Division 2 leaders HBA maintained their good form to pick up two more points with a 4-0 win over Keller, in which Richards scored twice, Mayers and Smith one each.
Red Admiral pulled themselves away from the danger area in Division 3 with a 2-1 win over bottom club Skylark. Keenan gave Skylark the lead but Admiral hit back to win with goals from Hazel and Foxall. A feature of the game were penalty saves by both 'keepers, Grimshaw and Shore.
In the same division, championship hopefuls Beacon went down 1-0 to Holly Park. Beacon had the chances to win but came up against 'keeper Rooke in sparkling form and his efforts ensured the goal from Allen was enough for victory.
A high-scoring game in Division 4 saw league leaders PSA go down 4-3 at home to Monica. PSA dominated the first half hour but failed to put away their chances. Two goals in three minutes put Monica into an unlikely lead before PSA pulled one back before the break. Monica increased their lead to 4-1 and although the deficit was reduced to 4-3 in a late rally, Monica held on to win.
Their scorers were Hawkes (2), Murphy and Stokes with Vannacore, Broadbent and Hepburn scoring for PSA.