The division’s two most entertaining sides (poorest defences!) met each other on Friday night with Tropics knowing a point against Corinthians would send them top but hoping to take all three and there were large squads on show down in TKO. Cors came out firing, taking advantage of a Tropics side who were late to be kitted up as the kit man was held up in Friday night traffic. Joey Richardson found the bottom corner with a nicely struck volley from the edge of the box to put Cors in the ascendency. Tropics though came back strongly, and Guru Singh levelled with a neat finish before Kyle Wagner beat his man at the front post to head home a corner and see the boys in blue and yellow into HT 2-1 ahead. Comical defending however saw aging fat lad Steve Cairns giving away a needless penalty which Anthony Jurenko dispatched to bring the scores level again. Tropics thought they had sealed the win as Karandeep Singh raced clear to make it 3-2 but more sloppy play at the back and a tidy finish from Max Brackenbury made it 3-3 and though Tropics pushed for the winner, Cors fought hard to battle for a point.

Krauts though made sure Tropics stay at the top of the table was short lived with another fine win against Soho Spartans, and for the third week in a row, they utilised the roll on roll off substitute rule to their advantage, as their ever-changing team with fresh legs a plenty saw them overrun Sparts 5-1. Soho will regret playing three at the back, as they found themselves 3-0 down early on yet Gabe Bartell pulled one back before half time after a switch to a back four. However, taking advantage of a sub-a-minute, Krauts got two more goals to bag bragging rights at the top. No news about how the goals were scored, only that Oliver Weston (2), Simon Sarnowsk, Florian Puchinger and Sebastian Sa Silva were the scorers.

DBFC sit joint top after the usual hardly fought contest against Wanchai Spartans as they came out 2-0 winners. Sparts had the better of the first half as DB sat deep but Daniel Loup put DB ahead before half time. DB were better in the second half but were nearly punished when an offside flag ruled out a Wanchai equalizer. As Sparts pushed forward in search of the elusive goal, Krisna Korani broke away to grab the second goal right at the death for Disco Bay. 2-0 was also the score as Scottish Eagles moved on to seven points beating J-Leaguers, who sit second bottom with three. In a very tough game due to the hot weather, the Eagles ability to find the back of the net from the very few clear-cut chances created proved to be the difference. Brett Sanson got the first and it stayed that way for a long while, until a Howard Kelly goal late on somewhat flattered the Eagles.

On Monday, a clash between two sides who had amassed two wins up until this point saw Stags race into an early lead and never look back, eventually running out 5-2 winners. Scottish were 2 up inside 5 minutes, and soon made it three. Cavs could and should have got at least one back before half time but missed a couple of guilt edged chances which Stags took full advantage of, scoring again before the interval. Cavs at least came out and made a game of it in the second half as Sherayer Piracha then Joshua Powell from the penalty spot made the score 4-2, and what looked like being a tense final 20 mins. However, a defensive error led to a fifth goal for Stags, the only blemish of the night for them being a red card for handbags. Stags’ scorers on the night were James Beacher with a hat-trick, Seb Page and Jevon Marsh. Irish Harps will look to pile more misery on Goodfellas in their re-arranged game this weekend and with no YYL games, will fancy their chances of getting a strong side out and joining those on 9 points at the top. The league then takes a break for cup action, with the round five fixtures set to take place in the middle of October.