Another win for Vale- whilst the Motormen motor into the Semi-Finals

In Pitching In Isthmian South Central Raynes Park Vale took on Bedfont Sports, the match played at Carshalton Athletic as Vale’s pitch was rather damp (aren’t we all? It has rained every day of 2026 so far!). Vale started the day in tenth, Sports in twelfth, with only a point between the sides at kick off- so we expected this one to be close, and indeed it was. 

The match had two penalties. The first of those went to Sports, and it saw Marcus Hill make a save, just before the hour mark. The second went to Vale, and this time it was Ibra Sekajja who failed to find the net- and this was rather a surprise, as by this point Sports weren’t only down to ten men, but they had an outfield player in goal- Trisdon Andrews taking the gloves after the dismissal of Tyler Tobin. 

It seemed that we were headed towards a goalless draw, but Alpha Diallo had other ideas. Right at the end a corner was cleared to Diallo, who was waiting outside the box, and his strike was worthy of winning any match- quite superb. He doesn’t score often- indeed so far as we can see that was his first Vale goal- but goodness, it was worth waiting for!

Vale are up to seventh, Sports remain twelfth. 

Elsewhere, and at the third time of asking, we had a Velocity Cup Quarter Final in East London. Crowborough Athletic travelled to Redbridge for a match which was originally scheduled for Sussex but was reversed to avoid another postponement. 

Both sides were in good form, and confident. The Motormen had four wins from their previous six matches; whilst the Crows had one defeat from six and were four unbeaten, but had found football difficult to come by of late, Saturday’s draw at VCD Athletic their first match since January 24th. Both sides had defeated defeated Premier opposition in the previous round, too, the Crows defeating Chatham Town, whilst Redbridge knocked out another of the top flight promotion chasers, Aveley. 

After a goalless first half, Redbridge went ahead on fifty six minutes, Kai Thomas-Fraser with the goal, but they were ahead for only four minutes before Josh Turner levelled. Nineteen minutes from time the Motormen were awarded a spot kick, which Jack Chawner put away, and they made sure of a Semi-Final spot five minutes later when Olamiji Ayoola added a third.

The Motormen will host Wingate and Finchley in the Semi-Final, whilst the other Semi-Final, between Ramsgate and Hashtag United, will be played this evening.

You might have noticed that we haven’t described the goals? That’s because you can watch them, below, courtesy of AJH Vision.