Week ending 20th April by Mason Norton

There were four other games in the LSL programme this weekend. Two of them were in the Everards Brewery Premier Division, but only one of them resulted in a change to the morning table. That saw Highfield Rangers move up a place to finish the season inside the top 6, Sileby Town falling a place down to seventh. Rangers defeated Barrow Town 3-1 thanks to goals from Yankuba Camara, Elie Oliver and Seon Shippley, Michael Joy scoring for Barrow, in what has been, to be frank, a pretty joyless season for the Riversiders. They finish their season now on a winless run of 19 matches in all competitions, which concludes in a second successive relegation, this time to Everards Brewery Division One, ten points adrift of Friar Lane & Epworth and bottom of the table. Only one team will go from the Premier this season after Ashby Ivanhoe Knights resigned from the League in February.


At the Pat Derby Pitch, Callum Key's first-half strike for Thurnby Rangers gave them all three points in a 1-0 win at home to Friar Lane & Epworth. Thurnby were the runners-up last season; this season, they finish 11th, but after a season that spent a large amount of time hovering around the relegation dogfight and suffer in January some of the worst flooding most of us have ever seen anywhere in the UK, let alone on a football pitch, simply to be able to be playing football on their home ground is a victory in itself, and the club's volunteers deserve a big hand for keeping the show on the road over the past 12 months. Thurnby's campaign has also been up-and-down- taking points off four of the top five teams, but also managing to lose to three of the four teams finishing behind them at different points in the season. Friar Lane have enjoyed more wins this season than last, but still wind up 14th, bottom but one in the Prem and in the last survival berth. 


The surprise result of the weekend came at the Main Street Playing Fields over the border in Nottinghamshire, where Sutton Bonington fell to a 1-0 defeat at home to Birstall United Reserves, Tye Robinson scoring in the first half, Birstall recording their first League win since Christmas and in all competitions since mid-January to move up a place in the table. That was the only game of the weekend in Everards Brewery Division One, where the top three will finish well clear and the bottom side Barrow Town Reserves well adrift, but everyone else is tightly bunched. 


There were no games in Everards Brewery Division Two, which finished last weekend, but the League have awarded Mountsorrel Amateurs a walkover win and the three points after Loughborough FC were unable to fill their fixture last Saturday, Mountsorrel finishing third. 


In the Chairman's Trophy, the second semi-final took place at Thringstone and saw Ingles Development host Hinckley Leicester Road Reserves, and Road booked their place in their third final this season, as a Brogan Greenwood brace and David Mensa-Bonsu's strike gave Road a 3-1 win, with Oliver Unwin scoring for Ingles in the first period. Road will face Loughborough Students Development on Tuesday 30 April in the final, which will be played at Barrow Town's Riverside Park.


Whilst the main prizes in Div1 look settled, the top scorer competition now looks as though it could go to the wire. Tallen Burt of Holwell and Brogan Greenwood of Leicester Road are tied on 19 goals apiece- whilst Road have two more games remaining than Holwell, both of them are cup finals against Loughborough Students. Div2's top scorer looks highly likely to be Jamie Bottomley of St Patricks, whilst Aaron Preston of Aylestone Park Reserves is almost nailed-on to take the Golden Boot not just for the Premier, but across the three divisions- a brace in the Tiger Cup Final on 14 May against Allexton & New Parks will take him to 40 goals for the campaign.  


That's it for this weekend. We'll be back next weekend with the final match of the season in the Premier Division, as Ellistown take on Burbage & Huncote, whilst over the next week, there are five matches in Division One, including a title party at Beaumont Park, as champions Anstey Town look to go the League campaign unbeaten when they face Sutton Bonington in their last game. Home straight for the League campaigns indeed. See you then.