Club night 4/11/13

The night’s matches saw a double bill of top-of-the-table clashes as the top 3 players faced each other in a bid to gain the upper hand in the title race. First up, Colin Day played defending champion Dave Butler. Day is in superb form, unbeaten and having conceded just two goals in his first 11 games. Butler also came into the match unbeaten and with a similarly stingy defence so it came as little surprise that the game finished goalless. That is not to say that the match lacked attacking play or chances, each player striving to create openings and work the opposing keeper. Butler hit the post from just outside the box on the right hand side and Day fashioned a decent chance from a well-worked corner. With a defender blocking the shot, Day will have been disappointed that the deflected lob cleared the bar – a shot on target would have been very nasty for Butler’s goalie to keep out. At the end of the 30 minutes, a point apiece was probably a fair reflection.

League leader Tom Burns played Dave Butler in the second match of the night. Burns has scored plenty of goals, as he did last year, but he had recently lost to Barry Corr. It was a game, therefore, that Burns was keen to win in order to get his title challenge back on track. As the chasing group have games in hand, Burns decided to throw men forward after going a goal down in the first five minutes and this left space for Butler to exploit which led to a second goal from a corner.  A third goal late on confirmed Butler’s victory. Burns remains top but can be overhauled by both Butler and Day should they win their games in hand.