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St Patricks 0-6 Desford

Thursday 9th April 2009

Leicester & District League Premier Division

The Emerald Centre, Leicester

In the race for the District League title it is a case of "as you were" as both contenders, Houghton Rangers and Desford both won at the weekend - Houghton 4-1 @ Burbage Old Boys and Desford 5-0 v Birstall RBL. Houghton still lead Desford by one point but having played a game more. Today sees Desford play their game in hand at bottom of the table St Patricks who have only won 2 games all season and conceeding 94 goals in the process. The reverse fixture earlier on in the season saw Desford run out 18-0 winners.

St Patricks play at the Emerald Centre on Gipsy Lane on the north east side of Leicester on the edge of the Northfields estate. The ground was home to former Leicestershire Senior League side Hillcroft who played their last season there. As per normal with the District League no admission was charged or programme issued and the attendance I would guess reached about 10. The pitch do be fair was awful and made playing football of any kind very difficult.

Desford had most of the possession but failed to create many clear cut chances, the play became scrappy and this caused a bit of arguing amongst them. The closest the visitors came was at the end of the half when the number six headed a free kick against the bar. In summarising it was a poor first half and the worst 45 minutes that I have seen Desford play so far this season. It was all change in the second half as Desford took the lead on 48 minutes through Reece Morris who drilled a lot shot into the keepers right hand corner. The second came on 62 minutes when one of the substitutes finished well after a good move on the left hand side with Stewart Smith. Five minutes later and it was 3-0 after the afore mentioned Smith prodded the ball home from six yards from a Simon Goodman free kick. The fourth was added just two minutes later when an attempted cross from Smith sailed over the keeper's head into the net. Two further goals came in the last five minutes - the first was an own goal when a Rocky Greenwood cross was put into his own net by the keeper and the second was a solo effort from Reece Morris.

After this emphatic but expected win Desford find themselves back on top of the table but come Saturday afternoon Houghton should regain top spot with Desford not having a game due to their involvement in the final of the Leicestershire Junior Cup on Bank Holiday Monday.