Week ending the 21st September by Mason Norton

With the main focus being on the Cups this weekend, there's not much League action to report, and most of it came in midweek. 


Starting on the disciplinary front, the League Management Committee considered this week two matches where teams failed to field sides. In Division One, Heather St John Reserves failed to raise a side at home to Loughborough Students Development in August, whilst earlier in September, Whetstone Athletic informed the League that they would be unable to fulfil a game scheduled on 14 September at Hinckley Borough. The League have awarded walkover wins to Loughborough Students Development and Hinckley Borough respectively, which increases the Students' lead in Div1 to three points, level on games with all of the other teams in the division, whilst Hinckley and Whetstone trade third and fourth spots in Div2. 


On the field, and on Tuesday night, Kirby Muxloe Reserves came from behind to win 2-1 at home to 10-man Heather St John Reserves, subs Joe Kerins and Ewan Lilleyman scoring for Kirby, Jimmy Chandler for Heather, Kirby moving up two spots to sixth in the Div1 table.


The only League game on Saturday came in the Everards Brewery Premier Division, and saw no change to the morning table, but plenty of entertainment as third-placed Aylestone Park Reserves and fourth-placed Hathern played out a thrilling 3-3 draw at Pasture Lane. Dolton Taylor gave Hathern the lead early on, but Aylestone were the sharper team in the first half, and drew level through Evan Kane, before Dan Henfrey put them in the lead six minutes before the break. Hathern were hanging on, but got back into it early in the second half when a panicking Aylestone defender's foul in the box resulted in a Hathern penalty, which Taylor despatched for the equaliser. 


Park then got back into some fluency, and midway through the half, the pressure told, and Leo Hicking buried the ball home from the edge of the box to restore Park's lead. Hathern then withstood some pressure, as Hathern keeper Dan Owen made a series of saves, but the home side then made some subs which changed the flow of the game, they started putting some good passages of their own together, a ball across field found Niall Henry out wide, who checked back in and curled the ball past the keeper for 3-3 with 11 minutes left. Both sides had chances to win it under darkening skies illuminated by ominous looming lightning that just held off, and each side needed last-ditch tackles to stay on level terms, with Park having a strong penalty shout turned in the final minutes. The deadlock couldn't be broken, and both sides had to settle for a point. Arguably the real winners were the watching Desford, who saw two of their title rivals drop points with their game in hand.


League action returns next weekend. There's action at both the top and bottom of the Prem, as Aylestone Park Reserves host Anstey Town and Friar Lane & Epworth take on Cottesmore, and there's full programmes in both Divisions One & Two. We'll be back on Monday night next week. See you then.