THE challenge for this season's title in the Soccersite.co.uk Malvern League is a three-horse race with the Bell Inn 98, Cross Keys and Oak Allstars winning and starting to put space between them and the rest of the teams.
With all three having to play each other again before the end of the season, it certainly makes for an interesting run-in.
Bell Inn 98 kept their place at the top when they beat visitors Keyz 04 by 5-2 in a very competitive game. Bell Inn 98 took the lead with somewhat of a special goal when Jon Owen, making one of his rare appearances, found himself with the ball at his feet outside the visitors' area and his shot ended up in the back of the net. Chris Grubb made it 2-0 before Andy Lancett pulled a goal back for Keyz 04 from the penalty spot. With play swinging from end to end, Keyz 04 equalised with a goal from Chris Golding.
With both sides having chances, it fell to Chris Grubb to put Bell Inn back in the lead and then the same player netted again to complete his hat-trick. A further goal from Bell Inn 98's Tim Clarke gave the scoreline a distorted look in a contest which was much tighter than it would suggest.
Second-placed Cross Keys kept up the pressure on the leaders with a convincing 10-1 victory at Fromes Hill Reserves. Their goals came from Dale Humphries, Andy Fletcher, Mike Cole, a hat-trick for Ollie Endacott and four from Rob Cullen. Fromes Hill Reserves' response was by Chaz Jones. An interesting statistic is that Cross Keys goals have been shared between no less than 20 players.
Third-placed Oak Allstars kept up their purple patch, which has seen them net no less than 68 times in their last five league games. Again it was bottom-placed Keys Victoria who suffered, as just three weeks after conceding 22 goals to Oak Allstars, they went down 2-16 at home. Oak Allstars' goals came from Chris Stone, Jamie Gladwin, Adam McTear, two from James Dean and five from Mark Toman, making another of his rare appearances. But the league's leading scorer Jamie James was in no mood to let his former strike partner outshine him as he increased his season's tally to 38 by netting six times. Keys Victoria, to their credit, kept battling away and were rewarded with goals from Anthony Lampitt and Chris Newman.
As is usual, the game between Morgan Aero 8 and Talbot Head turned out to be a very tight competitive contest with Morgan Aero 8 scoring a late winner to take the points with a 3-2 victory. Matt Ilsley gave the home side the lead when he headed home a Mike Griffin corner. There were lots of chances to both sides and Talbot keeper Nick Rogers made several good saves before Danny Briscoe equalised for Talbot Head when keeper Neil Thompson fumbled his centre-cum-shot into his own net. The visitors took the lead when substitute Mark Johnston fired home a good volley. Morgan then proceeded to equalise virtually from the kick-off with Mike Griffin finishing off a good move. Morgan took the points late in the game when Chris Gandar headed on to Simon Rusling, who ran in to tap it past the keeper.
Oak Misfits went down 1-11 to Dynamo Ledbury and ended with only nine men as Scott Mason and Gareth Presley were sent off. Misfits actually took the lead in the 10th minute through Terry Boswell before goals from Tom Hurrell, two each for Nicky Welch and Richard Punt and hat-tricks for Pete Boyle and Matt Grey saw them crash.
It was a game of two-halves at Ledbury as two each from the home side's Alan Barnes and Darren Cooke saw Ledbury Rangers go in at half-time 4-0 up. But a complete reversal of fortunes saw Ganglands hit back in the second-half as a goal from Gordon Mansell and two from Tom Bethell saw Rangers hanging on at the end as they took the points with a 4-3 win.
The remaining game saw Belmont Keys beat visitors Oak Academy 4-2 with goals from Andy Jenkins, Dave Perera, and two from Dave Jones, with the visitors' goals coming from Ollie Dunne and Aide Hodges.
This Sunday sees the league with two sides representing them in the last eight of the WFA Sunday Minor Cup as Cross Keys entertain Burlish Olympic Youth and Morgan Aero 8 visit Gardeners Arms.
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