DIVISION Two Rowde Sports and Division One Dursley Arms will have to replay their preliminary round game in the Knockout Cup competition, sponsored by Revolutions Cafebar Chippenham, following a 2-2 stalemate on Saturday.
Rowde, who had Wayne Hillier red-carded in extra-time, fought back twice from Neil Taylor's double strikes, Andy Beaven-Witts producing the first equaliser and Stuart Beaven levelling matters from a last minute penalty.
A rare shortage of officials left three matches without a registered referee but Steeple Ashton chairman Dave Pritchard, Kerry Sad at Lavington and Derek Holder who took control at North Bradley Saints, all emerged with great credit.
An injury to Andy Edwards left Ashton with only 10 men for 80 minutes against cup fighters Apetito who were finally sunk 4-3 by four-goal Guy Rowley, the final strike coming with seconds to spare after Darren Carter and Nigel Penelhum had wiped out a 3-1 Ashton lead. Earlier Neil Griffiths had brought Apetito level.
Rowley's quartet was matched by Paul Clarke in Deverills Reserves's 4-0 triumph at Hilperton United Reserves for whom first team defender Steve Appleyard donned the goalkeeping jersey. Appleyard commented: "Deverills were the better side but after the previous week we performed well. Most of our side are under 17 and on this occasion deserved to have scored."
Blue Circle player manager Steve Martin was even happier after his side without a win beat Division One rivals Heytesbury 6-2.
Champions Castle Combe gained a 3-0 win over Warminster Town Reserves.
After a very poor first half Combe performance, Leyton Brown netted twice with Chris Scollen adding a third. New boss Tony Hulbert commented: "Warminster played very well but we need to improve a lot." The two sides meet again tomorrow this time at Weymouth Street in the A and B Cup.
In the Premier Global Ltd sponsored league Hilperton United, with goalkeeper Daniel Green making an excellent debut in place of Mark Binns who broke his right leg in two places last week, missed the chance of becoming Division Two leaders. United led three times at Lavington and Easterton through Jamie Allford, and Steve Iven (2), but were pegged back each time through Tom Bishop, Jamie Cullip and Adam Gorham in a 3-3 draw.
Seend United Reserves also dipped out on going second in Division Three when wooden spoonists Bromham Reserves repeated last season's 3-1 victory at The Lye.
An early Julian Putt second half strike wiped out Duncan Biggin's first half effort for Bromham but two quick replies from Biggin and Daniel Barber gave the visitors their first points.
North Bradley Saints made no mistake of taking full advantage of the cup ties to open up a two-point lead at the top of Division Three.
Another outstanding performance was reflected by a second successive hat-trick from Chris Fardell including a penalty, two more from Carl Davies and one from Andy Colebrooke in the 6-1 destruction of Castle Combe Reserves whose sole reply came from Steve MacBeth.
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