Nirankari Dance Into Last Eight... After their re-instatement last week, Olympic Nirankari made the quarter-finals of the County Cup on Sunday, writes Darren “Statto” Jones (statto@cssfl.info, www.cssfl.info).

Herts Senior Cup:
After managing to prove Belstone of wrongdoing, Olympic Nirankari took their place in the fourth round and kept their ‘quad’ hopes alive. Josh Dance grabbed the opener from the penalty spot just five minutes in after an Adam MacKenzie header was handled. They found themselves under severe pressure for the next 20 minutes and their defence was finally breached when a quickly taken free-kick led to an unstoppable diving header from Oxhey Estates’ giant of a striker. The lead was quickly re-established when some fine link-up play from defence to midfield, then onto Dance, was finished with a bullet of a shot into the top corner by the big man. Nirankari dominated the second-half, but woeful finishing dragged the tie out until it was finally put to bed when Dance completed his hat-trick when he calmly rolled home a second spot-kick after Ricky Case was fouled. This Sunday sees them travel to St Albans to face Verulam Arms.

CSSFL Challenge Cup 2nd Round:
Coach and Horses produced a massive shock after making eight changes from the previous weeks’ 8-0 drubbing by MBDA, to dump the Division One leaders out of the cup. MBDA had thumped Dun Cow in the previous round, and a route to the final seemed paved, but have given Coach every credit for the way they played. They started very well and played some good football, old boy Colin Littlechild was given the captain’s armband for the first time, and it spurred him on to getting the first goal of the game. John Chitondo was a constant menace and made it 2-0 a few minutes later. Louis Hare pulled one back, but Chitondo scored a spectacular second for him on his return after three months. Young Aaron Jordan made it 4-1 just before the half-time whistle, and the tie seemed over. MBDA came out the blocks fast in the second-half and put Coach under a lot of pressure. Kyle Watson and substitute Ashley Kersey each scored to bring the score back to 4-3 with twenty minutes remaining. Coach manager Ben Morris threw on Sonny Houghton on and packed out the defence to soak up the continued pressure but despite plenty of guilt-edged chances, MBDA couldn’t force extra-time.

JML Plumbing & Heating Athletic hammered an eight-man TC Wanderers 9-0 to set up a last eight tie with Coach. Lewis Osbourne (hat-trick), Joe Lucy (two), Lewis White (two), Danny Russell and Tony Webb netted.

After their win over Dun Cow the previous week, King Pin United produced another excellent performance in a physical match against Broadhall. They took the lead after some good play down the wing resulted in a tap-in for Steve Gibbons. After an equaliser, Pin took a half-time lead through their 30-year-old stalwart, Dave Holmes. John Godfrey then dinked a beautiful cross over for Holmes to nod home his second for 3-1 before Broadhall stormed back to level the game as Scott Durham (two) and Jordan Davis were on target. They could’ve been in front, but for an excellent penalty save from Pin ‘keeper Andrew Palfreyman. The skilful Bradley Vooght then netted as Pin won the game 4-3 before their opponents were reduced to ten men. They now face Broadhall Icon.

Benington went through to a tie with Olympic Nirankari after dumping Brackas out 4-0, thanks largely to a hat-trick from Louis Gilbert. Ryan Palmer got the other.