Three of the four League Cup ties in the Workington and District Sunday League went ahead as planned.
Unfortunately Northside’s game with Glasson Gardeners was not played as the Maryport side could not field a team.
Two of the other three games were exceptionally close and there was a really eventful tie at Wakefield Road where Deer Orchard beat Bluebell 3-1.
Orchard started off by far the better, and went ahead from a Louis Pickering goal 15 minutes in. It was hammered in from close range for a deserved lead.
Bluebell had chances, but nothing the Orchard defence and goalkeeper Lee Meddings couldn’t deal with.
The hosts doubled their lead at the beginning of the second half with an excellent long range strike from Paul Williamson.
More home pressure saw Ryan Gorley shoot inches wide, while Ben Wright had his shot blocked by Lewis Maxwell who then made a goalmouth save from the predatory Pickering.
With fifteen minutes left on the clock Deer Orchard were cruising to a win, but then Blue Bell’s Ben Powell was shown a straight red by referee Colin Heron for a tackle on Pickering.
Instead of giving Deer Orchard the advantage, this fired Blue Bell into action and they surged forward and created repeated chances.
Five minutes later they had a penalty, duly converted by Kyle Teasdale, defeating Meddings who had saved an impressive three penalty strikes out of three in preceding games.
It was now game on and Blue Bell applied more pressure and piled forwards again, but a break away then saw Deer Orchard’s Cal West slot the ball home for 3-1.
Surely game over? Not yet! More Blue Bell pressure saw them awarded a second penalty, but this time Meddings made a fine save from Robbie Watson, and as the clock ticked down the home side held on for the win, and a place in the semi-finals.
The other tight quarter final saw Seaton Rangers just edge past Sun Inn Athletic 2-1.
Paul Lomas and Jordan Hawthorne scored the goals with Daniel Stockdale replying for Athletic.
But the Sun Inn will be represented in the semi-finals as their Premier Division side cruised to a 9-0 home win over JJ’s.
Daniel Pearson, Richard Hudson and Harry Creighton each scored a brace and the tally was augmented by goals from Matty Prior, Steven Rudd and Darryl Creighton.
There was one Premier League game in which Salterbeck beat Dearham 5-2 with goals from Tyler Haile (2), Nathan Brash, Logan Potter and Bobby Carter.
Dearham’s replies came from Jack Dunstan and Steven Stoddart.
Both games in Division One were exceptionally tight and finished 2-1 to the hosts.
Jack Pears and Aaron Porthouse scored for Maryport Athletic in their win over The Junction. Guy Richardson was on the mark for the losers.
Zak Starkie and Andrew Brown were on target for Senhouse as they edged out Flimby Social Club. Lazo Rayner scored for the visitors.
Fixtures for next Sunday are: Premier Division – Deer Orchard v Seaton Rangers; Bluebell v Northside; Glasson Gardeners v Salterbeck.
Division One: JJ’s v Flimby Social; Highfield v Senhouse.
