Non-League and Academy football writer

Step 6 Combined Counties Football League Division One side Bedfont FC faced Southern Amateur League Division One side Civil Service FC, in this quarter-final tie of the Middlesex Premier Cup, on Tuesday night at The Orchard. Bedfont had beaten Spartans Youth 4-0 in the previous round of this competition, with Civil Service winning by the same scoreline against Camden United, in the previous round. It was Civil Service who won this cup-tie 1-0. There was a lively start to this cup game, as a matter moments after Bedfont player Sam Molyneaux had hit a good and powerful effort on the away team’s goal from distance, with Civil Service goalkeeper Reuben Bull managing to parry the ball away, Sam Molyneaux would be shown a straight red card. This all happened following his reaction to a strong challenge (I didn’t have the best view of this incident) and a subsequent off the ball incident resulted in the Bedfont midfielder being sent off early on in the game. 

Civil Service would look to make the very most of this numerical advantage. Following a nice bit of skill on the ball (in the centre of the pitch), and then a good pass (from Johnny Moore) to Dwayne Sommerville on the left-hand side of the Bedfont penalty area, a good goalscoring chance presented itself. However, Sommerville’s powerfully taken effort went wide of the goal. And then around five minutes later, Dominic McCarthy would find the run of Dwayne Sommerville on the left flank. After continuing forward with the ball into the Bedfont box, Somerville would hit a good effort across the goal, which was just missed in front of the goal by Matthew Huntley. Bedfont would respond well, however. After a corner-kick had eventually found Alfie Harburn inside of the Civil Service penalty area. And after turning well with the ball his resulting low effort on goal was well kept out by Reuben Bull in the Civil Service goal.

Bedfont would continue to create chances. A couple of minutes after Reuben Bull had saved a deflected on his goal from the edge of the penalty area, the home side would go close to taking the lead. Bedfont’s captain Conor Molyneaux would find the impressive Sayyid Cissokho, on the right-hand side of Civil Service’s penalty area. Cissokho’s powerful low effort struck Reuben Bull’s left-hand post, before deflecting behind off him for a corner-kick. Soon after that good chance for Bedfont, a free-kick was awarded to the home side in the centre of the pitch. Conor Molyneaux would send a lofted ball into the away team’s box, finding Luke Maguire, whose flicked header was gathered by Reuben Bull. This was proving to be an interesting first half of football, with both sides looking to go ahead in this cup-tie.

Civil Service player Dwayne Sommerville had been impressing on the ball, so far in the game. After going on a forward run through the middle of the pitch, Sommerville would then find the run of centre-forward Matthew Huntley, who was just about able to reach the ball inside of the Bedfont penalty area. Through on goal and on the stretch, Matthew Huntley’s low effort on goal was deflected behind for a corner-kick off of George Armstrong, who had done well to close down the angles. And then following a long throw-in into the Civil Service penalty area, the ball was cleared out as far as Conor Molyneaux, whose powerful first time effort went over the goal. The final (very late) chances of the first half would come the way of the Southern Amateur League club, Civil Service. Herolind Osmani would pass the ball out to Dwayne Sommerville out on the left flank, and he would then surge forward into the Bedfont penalty area, before seeing his powerful effort on goal be pushed away by Armstrong. The ball then came to Matthew Huntley (I believe it was the Civil Service number nine), whose resulting effort (he was slightly off balance), would go over Armstrong’s goal.

Civil Service would start the second half of this match well. Their captain, Sam Hale, would play a clever one-two pass out to a teammate on the right flank, before then receiving the ball right on the edge of the Bedfont penalty area. However, Hale’s curling low first time effort went wide of Armstrong’s left-hand post. Soon after (in the 54th minute of the game) Civil Service would take the lead in the match. The goal came following some good build-up play, as Dwayne Sommerville received a pass out on the left flank of Bedfont’s half of the pitch. Sommerville would then go beyond two Bedfont players with the ball in real style, as he progressed the ball forward skilfully, at pace. Continuing near to the byline, Dwayne Sommerville’s powerful resulting cross would loop over the helpless goalkeeper, before going into the goal off his left-hand post, 0-1.

Bedfont would try to respond to going 1-0 down. After Luke Maguire had passed the ball to a teammate on the right-hand side of the visitors’ penalty area, Reuben Bull was called into action to push this low effort on goal up into the air, with Alfie Harburn doing well to then bring the ball down, before hitting a low effort just wide (there was a Civil Service defender on the goal-line) of the goalkeeper’s left-hand post. A significant moment in this lively cup-tie would occur soon after that chance for Bedfont, as Civil Service player Herolind Osmani was shown his second yellow card of the match by the referee, meaning that it was now ten versus ten on the pitch. 

The pace of the game continued to be good, and there would be a number of good chances during the remaining minutes of the game. Around three minutes after Alfie Harburn had hit an effort over Reuben Bull’s goal from distance, a big moment in the game occurred. As following a big appeals for a Civil Service penalty (following a fantastic, free flowing passing move) at one end of the pitch, which wasn’t given, Bedfont would then counter forward with the ball. A long pass would find Bedfont substitute George Taylor, who on the right-hand side of the away team’s box, would see his effort saved and well closed down by Bull. Dwayne Sommerville would then track back well to block behind an effort from Luke Dunn inside of the penalty area, following a cross to the Bedfont player from the left flank.

The Civil Service manager and players all thought that they’d won the game late on, but for a well worked goal that they thought that they had scored, to be given offside. However, Civil Service would see out the game well, despite it being a lively end to the game. Following the influential Johnny Moore’s effort from the edge of the Bedfont box being gathered by George Armstrong, a couple of minutes later Conor Molyneaux was sent to the sin-bin by the referee. And there was to be further late drama, as the referee would send off Shakir Kikomenko (Bedfont) and James Flynn (Civil Service) a matter of seconds before he had sounded his final whistle, for an off the ball incident by one of the corner flags inside the Bedfont half. However, this was a good and competitive game of football, with Civil Service doing the Southern Amateur League proud, by progressing to the semi-finals of the Middlesex Premier Cup.

The match winner, Dwayne Sommerville, was my player of the match on Tuesday. On the left flank Dwayne Sommerville did some really good work with the ball (just like he did in the previous round against Camden United), and his directness and skill on the ball, as well as some good work and movement off it, was capped off by him scoring the winner. However, unfortunately he had to be substituted off late on, because of injury. I wish Dwayne well, and hope that he is able to feature in the semis-finals of this competition. There were many contenders for my player of the match, (such as Johnny Moore, Dominic McCarthy, and Sam Hale), but in this good quality cup game, the winners (Civil Service) on the night (in my opinion) were deserved winners, with all of their players doing their jobs well and efficiently. Also, there were some strong performances from Bedfont, as well, with them having to play with a man less than Civil Service for a good amount of the game.