James Jaconelli struck an 84th minute winner for Fairlop FC against London Lions Vets 1-0 to advance in the Peter Morrison Trophy.
Whilst Fairlop triumphed the Lions were unfortunate as they hit the woodwork on three occasions and had goals controversially disallowed.
“Fair play to Lions, they have some quality players and at times had us very worried,” said Fairlop boss Aaron Dias. “They gave their best today but their best wasn’t good enough.
“Lions huffed and puffed but couldn’t blow that orange wall down.
“The first half of football was end to end stuff with both teams having chances. We should have taken the lead after Rosen was hacked down in the box but failed to convert the penalty.
“The boys showed great character in the second half, time and again we kept Lions at bay.
“With six minutes to go ‘JJ’ hunted down one of there centre-backs, robbed him of the ball, skipped round the goalkeeper and cooly finished. But it felt like time had stood still.”
Looking to the next round Dias said: “I’d love a trip to Manchester in the next round, but I’m worried someone else will knock out our local rivals before we do, so we be hoping for a Fairlop versus Redbridge quarterfinal.”
Manchester Maccabi 2nd defeated Brady Maccabi 3-1 to book a place in the next round.
Stanley Offord scored for the Londoners who had a weakened team but made the journey despite terrible weather conditions.
“We didn’t help ourselves by going behind to two mistakes and then were in the wrong end of a dreadful decision by the officials just before half time,” said Brady boss Joel Nathan.
“We rallied in the second half and scored and then missed an open goal, which would have got the nerves going, but ended up not be good enough on the day.”
Cup ties between Redbridge Jewish Care A versus Redbridge Jewish Care B and Maccabi London Lions Blue versus Sedgley Park were postponed.
Los Blancos shocked Premier League Camden Park in the Cyril Anekstein Cup with a 3-0 win to set up a semi-final clash against reigning Premier champions Oakwood A.
Avi Kestenbaum made up for missing an early chance when he glided past a marker before wrong-footing the Camden ‘keeper for the opening goal on 30 minutes.
Camden adopted an all out attack approach after half time and it paid off when Oli Sade lobbed the ‘keeper from 20 yards on the hour.
Jake Doffman drilled home the third on 70 minutes.
‘The lads put in a strong performance today and every one of my players dug deep,” said Blancos boss Joel Holder.
“We are delighted to be in the semis and look forward for some more magic of the Cup.”
Maccabi London Lions White thumped North London Raiders A 6-0 in the Premier Division.
Sharpshooter Ollie Craig scored a hat-trick, Adam Arnold, Tyler Smith and Josh Weiner also hit the target to claim the spoils.
Oakwood B came from behind to earn a share of the spoils in a six-goal Division One thriller against North London Raiders B.
Rob Blackman opened the scoring for Raiders with a looping cross.
David Dinkin volleyed home from a Matt Leader corner for a two-goal lead then Oakwood hit back with two goals in as many minutes through a Simon Davies header and Daniel Seligman strike.
Jake Gilbert edged Raiders ahead on 80 minutes only for Max Clynes to nod in a late equaliser for a 3-3 draw.
Oakwood manager Jason Stein was unavailable for the match but got a full review from ‘A’ team boss Daniel Kristall who stepped in for the match.
“Dan’s quality showed at the end when he sent Max into the box to head home, but why he wasn’t up there already is beyond me!” said Stein.
“Losing goalkeeper Ben Lewis to a broken finger in the warm-up was obviously a disaster that set us back. Then to be 2-0 down with 20 minutes to go and not lose is a pretty good effort. “Raiders will be gutted not to have won from there, then to have led 3-2 as well.”
Stein added: “By all accounts we played well but once again were our worst enemy.
“We missed loads of chances and gave away soft goals so it’s got to get better. Every week we are going out and giving ourselves too much to do.”
“Given the conditions, both teams deserve credit for playing as well as they did,” commented Raiders manager Doron Salomon.
“Snow fell all game and on the 3G pitch the surface became very slippery and unpredictable.
“This game was everything we anticipated it would be. Despite Jason’s absence from the sideline his team were well prepared, up for a battle and tough opposition.
“Although there was some controversy surrounding the late equaliser I couldn’t begrudge Oakwood the draw, a Raiders win wouldn’t have been a fair reflection on the game.”
Salomon added: “This doesn’t feel like two points dropped particularly because we lost a few players in the 24 hours before the game. The players worked very hard for a point against a good team who we face again in a couple of weeks.”
Temple Fortune A were unable to raise a team to play Faithfold A.
Mill Hill Dons defeated Real Hendon 4-0 to stay top of Division Two.
Zach Cohen and Adam Isaacs scored the Dons goals.
Hendon manager Rafi Addlestone didn’t feel the result reflected the game as Benny Goldberg twice hit a post, a wonder save denied Martin Smulovitch whilst Jordan Alex and Lolu Hibbert both went close to scoring.
“I’m sure the league leaders would admit that the score line flattered them,” he said.
“On a boggy pitch, the youthful exuberance of the Dons won through.
“Whilst we don’t go in to next week’s rematch flying high, we are quietly confident the score line will better reflect the relative parity between the teams.”
Bayern Mincha kept up their title challenge with a 4-1 win over North London Raiders C.
Adam Ellis struck a brace; Rafi Terespolsky and Gav Nussbaum completed the scoring.
“For the first 20 minutes we dominated the game,”
said Bayern player-boss Alon Pinhas.
“We were 3-0 up then took our foot a bit off the gas but still played well.
“In the second half we were way too complacent until Raiders made it 3-1 but Ellis took on the Raiders defence to finish the game off.”
Pinhas slotted home a fifth in the final minute only for the goal to be ruled offside.
“Most of the boys thought it was a harsh decision, however the referee was good throughout the game,” said Pinhas.
“Fair play to our opponents, they fought hard in the second half and made the game interesting. We wish them luck throughout the remainder of the season.”
A Josh Cohen hat-trick was the star moment as Hertswood Vale defeated Faithfold B 1.
James Neidle scored his first Vale goal in a 4-1 win.