Week ending 13th April by Mason Norton

We start the ramble round the divisions at New College in Leicester, where Allexton & New Parks were presented with the League trophy by General Secretary Sue Standley. However, the Allexton party at home to Ellistown, ANP's last game in the LSL, didn't quite go to plan. Andy Grout reports:


 "With Allexton in a well-deserved party mood that was reflected in a changed line-up, Ellistown knew they had a chance to collect a vital win in the race to finish second. Various drop-outs on the morning of the game, left Ellistown playing the first ten minutes with 10 men. This did not stop Ellistown starting the game on top and Tom Vyce was unlucky when hitting the post. With friendly banter between both benches, you knew this was a party game. While Allexton were not playing to their fluent best, they should have taken the lead but the striker missed from 5 yards. The deadlock was finally broken on 32 minutes when Ellistown's Mylo Walker danced past Freddie Young in the ANP goal to pass the ball into an empty net.


Tom Vyce then waltzed through the Allexton defence on 42 minutes to double Ellistown's advantage. That heralded a crazy second half, where Josh Swain of ANP scored twice. Unfortunately, his first was an overcooked backpass which trickled into his own net past a wrong-footed keeper just after the break, before he scored at the right end on 55 minutes when a long, flowing move down the pitch found him up front and he tapped in. Before that, Ellistown had made it 4-0 after Vyce went through the defence to score his second. Allexton then rained in a series of shots which tested the Ellistown keeper, but it was the visitors who made it five when Daniel Yadav finished off a flowing move from just outside the box after Ellistown hit ANP on the counter.


Ellistown could have scored more, but instead, the most surreal goal came right at the death, when Allexton won a corner, a demob-happy ANP keeper Freddie Young came up for it, Ellistown failed to clear their lines, and instead Young stabbed the ball right back past the keeper to make it 5-2, Freddie Young becoming perhaps the first keeper in the history of the Senior League to score in successive weeks, as referee Terry Simmons blew for full-time on a game that was played in the right spirit. ANP finish their campaign as Champions, whilst Ellistown have to win both of their remaining games to stand a chance of finishing second."


The contest for second is now between Ellistown and Hathern. The latter did not play this weekend, but Desford & Caterpillar blew their chance of the runners-up spot after they were held to a 1-1 draw at AFC North Kilworth on their last game of the season. Connor McGahan had given Desford the lead in a game that they needed to win, but after the turnround, Cole McNulty equalised for the hosts, and neither side could break the deadlock between then and the final whistle. Desford nudge up a place in the morning table to third, moving ahead of Aylestone Park Reserves. Desford are level on points with Hathern, but have a vastly inferior goal difference, and they could finish fourth if Ellistown win both of their remaining games. North Kilworth also finish their season, and come in in 10th place, the bottom end of mid-table for their first Premier campaign for nearly 30 years.


The only other game on the coupon for the Premier on Saturday was at Gleneagles Avenue, where Highfield Rangers took on FC Khalsa. In a game where there was only pride to play for, the lead changed hands several times, Rangers eventually winning 4-3, Yankuba Camara, Elie Oliver, Seon Shippley and Kyron Stabana scoring for Rangers, Daniel Yeboah-Kwarteng scoring the weekend's only hat-trick in the LSL, but still ending up on the losing side. Rangers guarantee a top-half finish with that win, whilst Khalsa await to hear whether they will be obliged to replay their game at Magna 73, but look set to finish in 13th, two places above the bottom, which was where they finished last season as well.