Week Ending 14th September by Mason Norton

In the Everards Brewery Premier Division, the top-of-the-table clash at New College saw Allexton & New Parks strengthen their hold on the leadership of the Premier Division after beating the morning's second-placed side Desford & Caterpillar 4-0. Zak Adams, Ryan Charles, Kieran Gethins and Brandon Jarratt were the scorers, with ANP going in 3-0 up at half-time in a game that was almost all over before the oranges.

Desford were overtaken in the table by Ellistown, who moved up to second after cruising to a 4-0 win away to struggling Barrow Town. Julian Taylor opened the scoring after seven minutes, which was followed by a Jake Robertson penalty midway through the half, and then Robertson scoring his second on the stroke of half-time after going through the defence and round the keeper, to leave Ellistown 3-0 up and on Easy Street at half-time, with the fourth goal coming in injury time in the second period when Kaydon Pywell scored from close-range. ANP find themselves three points clear of Ellistown, and have a game in hand on them, with Desford in third, after Aylestone Park Reserves missed out on moving into the top three when they lost 2-1 away to Highfield Rangers, Yankuba Camara scoring twice for Rangers, Aaron Preston for Park.

At the bottom of the table, Ashby Ivanhoe Knights set off for Magna 73 looking for a second win of the season to get off bottom spot, but unfortunately, never arrived at the Meadows in Countesthorpe. They decided to use the M1 for part of the journey, only to get caught up in the traffic as the M1 was closed in both directions between Junctions 21 and 22 due to two major accidents shortly after 1pm. The Knights party found themselves caught in the standstill, and consequently, the fixture was postponed, with the League's Management Committee to consider what action if any to be taken.

Barrow remain in the bottom two after their defeat, two points adrift of safety behind FC Khalsa who lost 2-0 on Saturday away to Sileby Town, Chris Shaw and Shaun Smith scoring. Two points ahead of Khalsa are Thurnby Rangers, who came unstuck when they were thumped 5-0 at home to Hathern. Liam Walton gave the visitors the lead just after the half-hour after Thurnby had started brightly. In the second half, Thurnby looked brightest again in the first few minutes after half-time, and the game remained poised going into the final half-hour.

That was before the Tom Insley show, who scored a perfect hat-trick in the space of just 13 minutes. Firstly, Insley pressed on down the flank, and never cut in, instead shooting past the keeper with his left foot. He then scored a header after an inswinging corner went into the heart of the six-yard box and the Hathern man rose highest, before completing the feat on 77 minutes with an outrageous chef d'oeuvre, after Jake Davies' ball up the park on the counter caught out the covering defender, and Insley scored from 35 yards out on the wing with his right foot, the ball sailing high over the keeper's head and swerving in the air before dropping straight into the net. Insley then added a fourth in injury time as he squeezed the ball past the keeper at an acute angle to make it five, stunning the hosts as Hathern secured their first-ever win at Thurnby.

There aren't many scoreless draws in the LSL, so it was something of a rarity to have two in the same division on the same day. Burbage & Huncote and Cottesmore drew 0-0 at the Huncote Sports & Social. Cottesmore went down the slope in the first half, but couldn't find a way through, and neither could Burbage in the second half, with the Cottesmore keeper Kevan Henry almost single-handedly earning them the point with a series of saves in the later stages, with Cottesmore's journey back to Rutland also complicated by the knock-on effects of the traffic in Leicester on Saturday. The other 0-0 was between AFC North Kilworth and Friar Lane & Epworth, helping Lane to put a little more distance between them and the bottom two, whilst NK continue to slip towards mid-table.