Raiders close in on Prem title

Raiders recorded their 12th win of the season with a comfortable 2-0 victory of London Lions Blue at Rowley Lane to extend their lead over nearest challengers Redbridge to 21-points.

MGBSFL Premier Division
London Maccabi Lions Blue 0 Norstar London Raiders A 2
Sunday, 6 February, 2014

The visitors raced out the blocks early on and could have been one up inside the first minute after an excellent move ended with a soft shot on goal.

After 20 minutes, Matt Stock broke free down the left wing striding past three defenders only for David Kosky to make a magnificent double-save, the second shot hit sweetly by Jamie Wolfson and parried over by the keeper.

Raiders turned up the tempo and after Stock was savagely taken down on the halfway line, the in-form forward responded in the best way possible, latching on to a David Dinkin through-ball and rounding the keeper to give his side a 1-0 lead at the break.

The second half started as it finished with constant pressure from the orange attack and brave defending from the Lions. A second goal looked inevitable after the introduction of Ethan Zone on the wing and it was Dinkin who picked up the ball on the edge of the area and finished neatly into the bottom left corner leaving Kosky with no chance.

The goal killed the game and Raiders cemented their 12th win of the season to move to 39 points. It was also their 8th league clean sheet – and made it four out of four shut-outs against Lions – a record keeper Jake Doffman is particularly proud of.

Speaking after the game, victorious manager Phil Peters said:  “Another good victory and we move on to our penultimate game of the season next week – a potential title-decider against Redbridge.

“This is unknown territory for most of us so we’re planning to ignore the Hendon mind-games and concentrate on what we’re currently very good at – winning football matches.”