End of year report by Mason Norton

Let's look at Everards Brewery Division One. Lutterworth Athletic Reserves finish 2024 as leaders, as Callum Harris, Lewis Dunkley, Barnes Gladman and Nathan Bedford gave them a 4-1 win at home to Dunton & Broughton United, Ben Jackson for DBU, who remain in bottom spot. Lutterworth are six points clear of Loughborough Students Development, but the Students have two games in hand and a far, far superior goal difference. They reached the halfway point of their League campaign on Saturday, and already have a goal difference of +74, further enhanced by a 10-0 thumping of visitors Saffron Dynamo Development. There were hat-tricks for Oli Downs and Adam McCormack, whilst Luke Abdy, Bilal Bourouf, and subs Tom Green and Ashden Shortland rounded off the scoring.

Both of those teams are now well clear of the chasing pack. Third-placed Hinckley LRFC Development dropped points for the second week running as they were held to a 0-0 draw to home to Heather St John Reserves. Road are now 10 points behind Lutterworth, having played the same number of games as the leaders, and their automatic promotion challenge looks to be fading, whilst Heather sit in sixth. Fourth-placed Loughborough Dynamo could have gone into third on Saturday if Road had lost and they had won, but they blew their chance by losing 4-1 at Holwell Sports Reserves. Max Fisher (2), Bailey Purkis and sub Theodore Murray-Peters scored for Holwell, Piers Wheeler with the consolation for Dynamo. That would have left the door open for St Patricks to break into the top four, but they could only manage a point at home to Barrow Town in a 1-1 draw, Jamie Bottomley scoring in the second half after Josh Allen had scored for Barrow before the break, Pats in fifth, Barrow in mid-table in 10th.

At the bottom of the table, Dunton finish 2024 in bottom spot. Saturday also saw a relegation six-pointer in Div1 at Main Street, where Sutton Bonington hosted Birstall United Reserves. It was a midwinter mudbath at SB, misty and murky as thick fog sat deep in the Soar Valley, but it was the hosts who played the sticky conditions best, as Joe Brown and Jordan Crosland scored to give Sutton a big 2-0 win in the relegation battle. Birstall remain in the bottom two, a point ahead of Dunton, and five points adrift of Sutton and safety. Five defeats in their last six outings have sucked Saffron towards the dogfight, just two points ahead of Sutton, whilst three wins in their last four starts have lifted Holwell to 12th, ten points clear of the drop zone.

In mid-table, the local derby saw Mountsorrel Amateurs take the points and the spoils with a 4-1 win at home to Sileby Town Reserves, Liam Turner (2), Imran Guzel and Oliver Rowley for Mountsorrel, Callum Glover for Sileby, Mountsorrel staying seventh, Sileby Reserves tumbling a place to 11th. Finally for Div1, Kirby Muxloe Reserves and Ingles Development played out a 2-2 draw on Saturday on the 3G at Kirby, Shaan Thakor scoring a brace for Kirby, Benn Minshull and Dan Turner on the scoresheet for Ingles. Ingles stay eighth, Kirby in ninth.