London United reach CSA England Cup Final

A solitary goal from Ergun Taykin helped London United was enough to beat FC London 1-0 and send the Black and Red through to the CSA England Cup Final.

German Taykin found himself clear after a through ball England superstar Craig Craico. Taykin rounded FCL keeper Christian Watson, and made no mistake in firing home.

Leicester Phantoms 1-2 FC London

FC London came back to win 2-1 at Leicester Phantoms.

Goals

Leicester Phantoms: Bellamy 72'.

FC London: Rhodes 84', King 87'.

London United 2-2 Fire

Saturday 1st May

HMV Park, London. Att: 46,493.

London United were stunned by a late comeback by Nottingham Fire, with keeper Mehdi Kaziri getting on the scoresheet.

United were in control of the game from the first minute and they were rewarded with a goal with CraiCo's 20-yard free kick.

Carlos Torres-Pizarro doubled the score, and it appeared there was no way back for the Fire.

However, totally against the run of play, they won a corner. Morocco international keeper Kaziri came up for the corner which was taken by Ben Judd. Simon Herding came out but only punched it to the oncoming Kaziri who let a left foot shot into the empty net.

The goal fired up the visitors, and shortly afterwards the Fire began to attack with great force. Stig Gunnar Sundevahl played a great through-ball for Hugo Watson after John Macdonald played him onside and the striker put one through Herding's legs.

The London United stopper's form will worry England manager Marco Garibaldi, but Herding always seems to get back to his best after off-days.

Goals

London United: CraiCo 18', Torres-Pizarro 56'.

Fire: Kaziri 89', Watson 90'.

CSA England Cup SF: London Town 4-2 Monsters

Saturday 10th April 2010

Vodafone Stadium, London. Att: 68,593.

London Town braved the new, controversial Vodafone Stadium pitch by reaching the CSA England Cup final for the third time in succession with a 4-2 win against Monsters FC.

The pitch was the centre of attention, with its new FieldTurf surface - an artificial type of grass -after previous complaints about the state of pitch.

It had to be tested by the CSA and CSA England, before getting the seal of approval by both federations.

But it was Town who adjusted the best to the new pitch, playing their passing game without a hitch against the Monsters, who decided to abandon their attacking style of play in favour of a long ball game.

That turned out to be a terrible idea for the Team in Green and Purple, and there was no way that the Monsters giant rookie striker Matt Oxley was going to get past the Blues' centre-halves Daniel Perry and Juanpa Gonzalez.

The Anglo-Spanish connection in the heart of the Town defence was so much stronger than the Anglo-Spanish connection up front with Oxley partnering with Quique Gomez.

But it was an Italian that put Town in front with half-an-hour gone, Andrea Romano breaking away from the Monsters defence and slotting it through Igor Kuljman's legs.

John Carey made it two on the stroke of half-time with a powerful header.

When Quique made it 2-1 within 30 seconds of the match, it put the Monsters back in contention as they started to play to attractive style of football, but it was all in vain as Daniel Perry made it 3-1.

Darren Watkinson pulled another back for the Monsters, before Town's Kevin Brickman scored in injury time to win 4-2.

Goals

London Town: Romano 33', Carey 44', Perry 67', Brickman 90'.

Monsters: Quique 46', Watkinson 82'.

Dragons 0-0 Strikers

Saturday 3rd April

Liberty Stadium, Swansea. Att: 9,485.

The Dragons and Sheffield played to a 0-0 draw in front of a disappointingly low crowd in Swansea.

Goals

Dragons: none.

Strikers: none.

FC London 5-4 London Town

Saturday 27th March

FC London Stadium, London. Att: 46,680.

FC London completed possibly the biggest comeback in BritLeague history, downing London Town 5-4 in another BritLeague classic to give the reigning champions their second league defeat.

The Megahoops found themselves 4-0 down at half-time after a dominant London Town performance.

The Blues are exponents of scoring early goals and today was no exception as John Carey netted his fourth goal of the campaign after only four minutes.

And Carey stunned the red and white faithful at the FC London Stadium into awful silence as his stunning free-kick put Town 2-0 up after only ten minutes' play.

Poor width from FCL allowed Town left-back Ashton Reid to run the full length of the pitch and he let rip a 20-yard left-footer which had no chance for 'keeper Christian Watson.

Many predicted the game was already over in the first half, as FCL old boy James Douglas made it four without reply, silencing the fans who called him Judas and booed every single touch he made of the ball.

In fact, at half-time, many FCL fans left the ground in disgust.

But despite the scoreline, FCL were far from out of it.

Clearly inspired by a heated team-talk by manager Brian Young, FCL began to take control of the game in the second half and on the hour mark, Hoops winger Craig Palmer broke through into the box and threw himself to the floor on Niko Tomic. However, despite strong arguments from the Town players, the referee decided it was a penalty despite replays showing that golden-haired wizard Palmer clearly dived on the Croatian wing-back.

Young England CSA World Cup prospect Palmer took it himself and he buried it past Marco Schuipers.

FC London were given another penalty after Australian striker Craig Cinoli ran through on goal, 1 on 1 with Dutch stopper Schuipers, with the Town keeper clearly bringing Cinoli down for a penalty. Cinoli scored past sub Jeff Carter making the score 4-2.

Suddenly, the crowd were right behind their home team, and midfielder Ryan Welch scored two within nine minutes, making it 4-4.

Clearly stunned by FCL's comeback, Town not only lost their momentum, but also their focus and Jeremy "Jezza" Constantinidis scored his first FCL goal after running past the three central defenders Juanpa, Daniel Perry and Shane Macdonald, one-two-ing with Brian Nixon and shooting through Carter's legs to give FC London the most improbable win ever.

Goals

FC London: Palmer 61' p, Cinoli 67' p, Welch 73', 82', Jezza 90'.

London Town: Carey 5', 10', Reid 33', Douglas 38'.

Bookings

FC London: Trujillo 35', Jezza 77'.

London Town: Tomic 65', Schuipers 66', Perry 87', Juanpa 89'.

London United 5-1 Phantoms

Tuesday 23rd March

HMV Park, London. Att: 44,076.

A CraiCo hat-trick stunned Leicester Phantoms as the Midlanders crashed to a 5-1 defeat at the hands of London United.

Steven Tweed headed in his first United goal after ten minutes, before CraiCo's first goal.

Edward Redwood made it 3-0 after a brilliant free-kick, before CraiCo completed his hat-trick with two goals within five minutes, before Shane Howard replied for the Phantoms in stoppage time.

Goals

London United: Tweed 10', CraiCo 24', 78', 83, Redwood 65'.

Phantoms: Howard 90'.

Fire 0-1 Real Birmingham

Tuesday 16th March

The City Ground, Nottingham. Att: 24,569.

Mark Strickland's header won the game for Real Birmingham in a highly intense Midlands Derby against Nottingham Fire.

The former England skipper rose above everyone else after Cris Costa's wonderful corner and he headed home past a stunned Mehdi Kaziri.

Goals

Fire: none.

Real Birmingham: Strickland 76'.

Real Birmingham 2-1 Ruckus

Saturday 13th March

Muller Park, Birmingham. Att: 24,067.

Real Birmingham won 2-1 over South Coast Ruckus.

Goals

Real Birmingham: Costa 16', Barry 76'.

Ruckus: Defranco 40'.

Knights 3-1 Shamrocks

Saturday 6th March

Knights Arena, Suffolk. Att: 29,569.

The East Anglia Knights stormed to victory with a 3-1 win over the Dublin Shamrocks in the first game ever played at the Knights' new ground in Suffolk.

Adam Gaffney headed in the 1-0 from a Danny Basingstoke corner.

But fellow centre-half Richard Hately equalised for the Irish side with a header of his own after a Steve Berry corner.

However, it was a Hately error that gifted the lead back to the Knights when the Irishman miscontrolled a pass and England star Adam Carter ran past him with the ball and rounded bemused goalie Shane Murphy.

And Welsh striker Karlo Krzystofski marked his first league appearance since September 2009 after recovering from a serious knee injury with a wonderful chip from 30 yards after he saw Murphy completely off his line.

Goals

Knights: Gaffney 23', Carter 58', Krzystofski 88'.

Shamrocks: Hately 35'.