Silky Stone Set Title Pace!

The sunshine of a week ago may have gone but Tuesday evening saw another two wins for Hillstone and the Shard-Enders sit proudly atop La Liga.
Hillstone opened up at their home base against Blakenhale and in a topsy-turvy game, ‘stone took the lead against the run of play. Blakenhale responded with a blistering spell of football and netted three times. Playing scintillating football, ‘hale then hit the bar and had numerous chances to put the game to bed but ‘stone scored twice themselves late on in the first half and went in level at the break. After an inspirational team talk at half time by Mr Campbell, Hillstone flew out of the blocks and scored three more times without reply to run out solid 6-3 winners.
Champions Abbey then took to the field against Blakenhale and in another game full of quality and with both teams playing football from the back, chances came and went at both ends but it as Abbey who eventually stole the show and their dominance in front of goal, led to a 4-1 victory.
And so to a clash between Hillstone and Abbey. Both sides boasted 100% records going into the game and it was the champions who took the lead and remained dominant throughout the game. Hillstone defended brilliantly though with every player working their socks off and though Abbey had the lion’s share of possession, Hillstone equalised early in the second half. The pattern of the game stayed the same, but Abbey could not convert their chances and Hillstone scored late on to clinch the game and they now have twelve points from their opening four games.

There were titanic tussles aplenty at Yardley as the Youths entertained Short Heath and SS Peter & Paul. Yardley opened against Short Heath where a stubborn and hard-working Heathen’s side made life difficult for the Youths and kept them at bay and it took an unfortunate deflection from a corner to break the deadlock and nick a 1-0 win for Yardley. The Heathens picked themselves up and went again against SSPP but though their effort and commitment was more than commendable, they ran out of legs and succumbed to a 3-0 reverse. P&P faced Yardley in the final game of the evening and in another end-to-end game, Yardley’s defensive line stood strong and refused to bow to the black’n’whites’ pressure. A sweetly curled left-footed effort gave the Youths a 1-0 half-time advantage and with P&P pushing on in search of a point, the Youths secured all three themselves with a second, two minutes from time.

St Bernadette’s began their league campaign at St Matthew’s and left Nechells with six points following 1-0 and 3-1 wins over St Matthew’s and Audley respectively. Audley peppered Bernie’s goal but only breached their defence the once while Bernie’s strikers were far more ruthless. St Matthew’s then took on Audley and in an entertaining fixture, notched up their first win in four games as they defeated Audley 3-2.

Rosary maintained their unbeaten start to the season and netted successive wins at Waverley. The Saltleysiders commenced proceedings with a 4-0 win over a battling Waverley side with the pick of the goals a swerving strike direct from a corner. The Rosarians then secured maximum points with a 6-0 victory over a young Gunter outfit – Rosary’s strikers finally hitting form. In the evening’s finale, Gunter led twice against Waverley but were pegged back on both occasions and the pair ended up sharing the spoils from a see-saw battle, 2-2.

Nansen forfeited their games against Timberley and Ward End which left the latter to battle it out in Shard End. In a close, keenly fought contest, it was the Timbers who took the points with a narrow 2-1 win which elevates them to fourth in the table.