Eastham Rangers completed a full six out of six for clubs from The Houlihan’s Birkenhead Sunday Association Football League to claim the last place in the Wirral District Football Association Sunday Cup Finals for open-age clubs.
Eastham Rangers defeated Bromborough Athletic 4-2 in The Sunday Junior Cup semi-final with Jordan Crowder helping himself to a brace and assisted by singles from Sean Williams and Martin Marshall.
Queens Park had to fight back from two-nil down from two strikes by Luke Blondel for Neston Nomads. Queens fought back early in the second half, with a double from Harvey Sample and Liam Owen scored the winner to seal yet another final appearance in The Veronica Conway Premier Cup. Queens have already lifted the trophy on 12 previous occasions.
Rig Move FC made the right moves in their quest for honours in their debut season by booking a place in The Final Of The Frank Robinson Presidents Cup with a 3-0 result over Upton Town, with Shaun Weaver, Mike Bebb, and Josh Lyth all netting.
In the other semi-final, JPL Jets played the tune at Wirral Radio (Connor Egan) 4-1; Tom Taaffe, Kevin Day, Adam Larway, and Jake Smith found themselves on the scoresheet for JPL Jets.
In the first semi-final of the Tony Smith Memorial Cup, Whitby Rangers secured a place in the final with a 5-2 result at Glenavon Athletic (Dylan Taylor, Paul Keenan). Sam Cooper, Brad Bland, Matty Vickers with a pair, and Tom Ruffer were on the mark for Whitby, who have already claimed a place in The Wirral FA Sunday Junior Cup final. They are still in The David Tacy Cup and remain unbeaten in their division, they are aiming for a four-trophy haul.
Wirral Athletic, who are not normally known to be at the helm in Division Three, secured a place in The Jimmy Core Cup Final after a narrow 4-3 success over North Wirral Saints (Ben Dunn (2), Will Gill), with Joe Roberts bagging two and singles from Harry Huggins and Declan Pearce all finding their scoring boots for the Athletic boys.
There was a great result for Premier Division leaders Woodchurch, despite not playing as two of their nearest rivals Beechwood FC and current champions Rock Ferry Social battled it out with a 1-1 draw. Rob Cull put Beechwood 1-0 up after 10 minutes with Adam ‘Sabu’ Smith equalising in the second half. Both teams had great chances and also both hit the bar.
It is still a four-club tussle to lift The Ryan ‘Gigsy’ Atherton Trophy. Corsair PV bounced back to winning ways after two defeats in two different cup competitions recording a 3-2 win to sink Great Float S&S and rule them out of an outside chance of finishing in the top as they did last season (Tom Harris 2) 3-2. Jordan Dilworth, Sam Hewitt and Kieran Cartwright netted a goal each for Corsair.
Game of the day in the Maxwell Barbers Division One saw Wirral DFA Sunday Amateur cup finalists Wellington FC take the honours with a narrow 2-1 result at Cheshire Cheese (Luke Warrington). Nathan Cope and Harry Davies were the goal-getters for Wellington. It is all nip and tuck in the top half with plenty of hair-raising moments to come.
Danny France, Harry Firkins, Ross Meadows, and Neil Davies were all on the mark for Barcode FC in a 4-0 romp over Poulton Victoria S&S (pictured) have given themselves an outside chance of promotion in Division Two despite having played more games than others teams just below them.
Lions FC and Barkers Armchair FC shared the honours in a keenly contested mid-table clash. Sam Lagan with a double and a Ryan Summers effort were on hand for Lions, while Mark Munt (2) and Lee Doyle made the scoresheet in the 3-3 draw.
Eagle Stirrup FC had Callum Jones to thank for earning maximum points to maintain their mid-table place 2-0 at Victoria Colts.
Division Three leaders, West Kirby Social, got back to winning ways with a solid 2-0 result at AFC Tima, with Henry Martyn and Akil Thiruselvan netting.
Daryl Hellon and Declan Iverson obliged for second-placed Old Parks FC, who have five games in hand and are four points behind, to beat AFC Raeburn FC.
AFC Rangers (Lewis McKnight, Peter McNulty, Darren Caplin) dropped two vital points in their quest for promotion sharing the spoils 3-3 with Parkgate Panthers (Liam Peacock, Alex Butterworth (2)).
Athletic VH sought revenge on Higher Bebington Kelma after a recent defeat in The Wirral DFA Sunday Junior Cup to seal a 2-1 win and put themselves in the mix for the promotion places.
Oval FC had John Skipsey, Ollie Nicholson, plus an own goal on the scorecard and served up three points to keep their endeavour in their push for promotion 3-1 over Parkgate St Germain (Luke Hall).
The Houlihan’s Birkenhead Sunday Association Football League are now accepting applications from new prospective clubs to join the League for the 2023-2024 season, a limited number of vacancies are available also a proposed Youth Division for the same season that is scheduled to start in August 2024, any Youth clubs that wish to enter two teams can do so, one team will be known as Youth U/18’s and a second team is normally known as a Colts U/17’s, please visit the League website for contact details.
Images: Barcode FC (White) v Poulton Victoria S&S (Maroon) – Credit: Bob Shaw
Premier Division
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Diff | Pts | |
| 1 | Woodchurch Hotel | 13 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 38 | 14 | 24 | 31 |
| 2 | Rock Ferry Social | 14 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 36 | 24 | 12 | 29 |
| 3 | Beechwood SC | 12 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 26 | 13 | 13 | 25 |
| 4 | Dock AFC | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 25 | 15 | 10 | 21 |
| 5 | Queens Park | 12 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 27 | 19 | 8 | 19 |
| 6 | Great Float S&S | 10 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 23 | 19 | 4 | 14 |
| 7 | Neston Nomads | 13 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 21 | 27 | -6 | 12 |
| 8 | Corsair PV | 13 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 19 | 30 | -11 | 9 |
| 9 | Lancelyn Glenavon | 12 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 17 | 33 | -16 | 9 |
| 10 | KRCT Bidston FC | 15 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 23 | 61 | -38 | 4 |
Division One
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Diff | Pts | |
| 1 | Bushell Athletic | 13 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 29 | 13 | 16 | 29 |
| 2 | Cheshire Cheese | 12 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 42 | 13 | 29 | 25 |
| 3 | JPL Jets | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 36 | 10 | 26 | 25 |
| 4 | Wellington FC | 11 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 31 | 19 | 12 | 23 |
| 5 | Eastham Rangers Colts | 10 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 23 | 16 | 7 | 19 |
| 6 | Rig Move FC | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 17 | 16 | 1 | 14 |
| 7 | Upton Town | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 21 | 13 | 8 | 12 |
| 8 | Wirral Radio FC | 11 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 18 | 28 | -10 | 12 |
| 9 | MSC Eastham | 14 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 11 | 42 | -31 | 7 |
| 10 | AFC Shaftes | 13 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 19 | 45 | -26 | 6 |
| 11 | Woodchurch Rovers | 13 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 14 | 46 | -32 | 3 |
Division Two
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Diff | Pts | |
| 1 | Bedford FC | 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 43 | 10 | 33 | 28 |
| 2 | Prenton FC | 13 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 47 | 12 | 35 | 26 |
| 3 | Barcode FC | 14 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 26 | 18 | 8 | 24 |
| 4 | Whitby Rangers | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 31 | 5 | 26 | 19 |
| 5 | Saughall | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 36 | 28 | 8 | 17 |
| 6 | Lions FC | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 21 | 16 | 5 | 17 |
| 7 | Eagle & Stirrup FC | 12 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 15 | 17 | -2 | 17 |
| 8 | Barkers Armchair FC | 13 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 20 | 45 | -25 | 14 |
| 9 | Poulton Vics S&S | 13 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 19 | 33 | -14 | 13 |
| 10 | Victoria Colts | 13 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 13 | 42 | -29 | 7 |
| 11 | Glenavon Athletic | 14 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 7 | 52 | -45 | 1 |
Division Three
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Diff | Pts | |
| 1 | West Kirby United | 20 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 42 | 25 | 17 | 37 |
| 2 | Old Parks FC | 15 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 42 | 22 | 20 | 33 |
| 3 | AFC Rangers | 15 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 36 | 23 | 13 | 30 |
| 4 | Oval FC | 14 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 32 | 20 | 12 | 27 |
| 5 | Athletic VH | 15 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 26 | 21 | 5 | 23 |
| 6 | AFC Tima | 14 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 32 | 32 | 0 | 20 |
| 7 | H Bebington Kelma | 14 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 33 | 28 | 5 | 19 |
| 8 | Eastham Rangers | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 20 | 16 | 4 | 19 |
| 9 | Wirral Athletic | 16 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 32 | 55 | -23 | 16 |
| 10 | Parkgate Panthers | 15 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 35 | 38 | -3 | 16 |
| 11 | North Wirral Saints | 14 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 32 | 30 | 2 | 14 |
| 12 | Parkgate St Germain | 15 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 17 | 34 | -17 | 9 |
| 13 | AFC Raeburn | 16 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 16 | 51 | -35 | 5 |
Why not follow birkenhead.news on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter? You can also send story ideas to news@birkenhead.news
Subscribe to our FREE newsletter