First Division
AEL 0 New Salamis 4
New Salamis are back on top with an easy win over AEL 4-0 although they dominated the game AEL created chances to score goals with Danny Vearer always a danger. New Salamis had loads of chances which they should have taken advantage of because at the end of the season it may be so close that the championship it could be decided on goal difference.
This win leaves the red’s in pole position and one point in front of second placed Tripimeni and three points ahead of third placed Apoel who have a game in hand.
New Salamis’s goals came from Steve Velandia who scored twice, Mario Georgiou and Dean Fenton.
This defeat leaves AEL struggling at the bottom with Brotherhood on their heels fighting with them for survival to stay in the first division.
Rizokarpasso 4 Olympia 1
Rizokarpasso are back to their scoring ways again now scoring ten goals in their last two games. They were very impressive against a vastly improved Olympia team now managed by former New Salamis manager George Georgiou. Rizokarpasso have taken a while to settle this season and had narrow defeats against the top teams but their improving all the time under the management team of Dino Ippocratous and Tony Ponnou.
Rizokarpasso were one nil up at half time with a goal from Stavros Kyprianides but then the revelation of the game came when super sub Anthony Macdonald came on and scored a hat trick to really get the game going. Olympia scored a consolation goal in the dying minutes with David Hicks.
Second Division
Arachne 2 Asha 0
It’s all change in the second division with Arachne overtaking Livadia and going on top of the second division for the first time this season after a tough game with Asha who are beginning to find their early season form when they were leading the table in fact they beat Arachne 3-1 at the early stages of the season.
Arachne’s hero was Anthony Panayi who scored both goals one in the 10th minute and the other in the 85th minute.
Komi Kebir 5 Achna 0
Komi Kebir have now joined the promotion race after a very convincing 5-0 win over Achna. Komi Kebir are now fourth place level on points with third placed Cyprus Youth who have a game in hand and one point behind second placed Livadia and four points behind the leaders Arachne.
Komi Kebir were two nil up at half time with goals from Nick Toumazos that came after a good team build up and the second from Mario Seyho.
In the second half Komi kept up the momentum and scored a third with Volkan the fourth a shot from the edge of the box from Chris Ierotheou and finishing with a fifth well taken goal by Andy Kyprianides.
LFA Challenge Cup
Quarter Final
Phoenix 1 Apoel 4
This was a convincing win for Apoel versus Phoenix who had defeated Tripimeni in the previous round. This leaves Apoel to go into the semi finals to play on March the 10th versus Turkish Cypriot team Yalova Who play in the Turkish League or Lambeth All Stars.
Apoel’s goals came from Lawrence Haji in the 19th minute and George Sifonios 48th minute with Phoenix getting one back in the 60th minute and Jason Mason completed the rout with two goals in the 70th and 85th minute.
LFA Intermediate Cup
Quarter Finals
Convoys FC 3 Pendayia 3 (Convoys won 6-3 AET)
Pendayia came out flying after the long trip to South London going 1-0 ahead when a great ball down the left from Theo Vassiliou found captain Vas Nicou, who curled the ball into the bottom of the net. However the teams went into the half drawing 1-1 after a good shot from the right floated over the Pendayia keeper and into the net. The visitors were surprised to fall behind 3-1 shortly after the restart as the evidently weaker Convoys team looked to run away with the game after two lucky goals. Pendayia were spared from going 4-1 down when keeper George Georgiou saved a penalty, diving to his left.
However the home team heavily underestimated the fight in Pendayia and with 15 minutes to go excellent work down the right saw the ball fall to Jordan Shaw who fired home. With 5 minutes left Pendayia, pushing hard for the entire game, were rewarded when Andrew Loizou clipped the ball in at the near post to send the visitors into a frenzy. In the dying minutes of the game Pendayia had the chance to kill the game off but Kyri Christofi’s chance got the slightest touch off the keeper and came back off the post.
Unfortunately for Pendayia extra time saw the visitors grab 2 more lucky goals and in the final moments another penalty for the home team saw Pendayia crash out of the competition.
Although the final score was 6-3 in favour of Convoys FC this in no way reflects the visitors’ performance and Pendayia should leave the game with their heads held high after an extremely spirited, committed and hard fought game.
