Hendon stay top after clash of league titans

Sunday morning’s big match in the Maccabi GB Southern Football League saw the Premier Division’s top two clash as Hendon United travelled to Geez Park Rangers.

Akiva Restan fired league leaders Hendon in front with just five minutes on the clock, but Rangers levelled through Tyler Smith midway through the first half. With no further goals scored, Hendon maintained their two-point lead at the top of the table.

Their manager Alex Rosenthal said: “It was a solid display. We started brightly scoring a great team goal and I was pleased with how we reacted, especially to their equaliser.

“It was a fairly balanced game, I think we had the better chances to win it but we’ll take the draw, and continue our unbeaten run.

“It’s been a fantastic start to the season, the whole squad has played a massive role putting us in a strong position. It’s one game at a time but we’ll definitely keep pushing for the title.”

Rangers’ manager Ben Leslie was also upbeat. He said: “We played well. We conceded an early sloppy goal, but recovered well, battled hard through the second half and deserved to win the game.

“I felt the referee missed a few decisions, which had we have got, would have changed the game [in our favour]. But overall, we were the better team, we just lacked decisiveness in front of goal.

“I think we’ll need to win nearly all our games to win the title. We’ve done OK in the league and should have won more. We’ve had huge injuries in our forward line, which hasn’t helped, and when we are able to get those players back in a few months’ time, we’ll score more goals and win more games. We can still win the title, but it will be tough.”

The big movers of the day were HMH A, who thrashed Oakwood 6-0 to leave the reigning champions in the relegation zone.

Stoke Salmon join HMH A in joint-third after a 2-0 win over bottom side Hapoel Hampstead.

Millbrook Park Calcio are the new Division One leaders after they came away from HMH B with an emphatic 5-1 win. Joel Walters scored a hat-trick, with Gabe Cooke and Benji Radnor also on target. Calcio’s Idan Levy said: “We showed our experience against a side who were possibly missing a lot of key players.” Daniel Slavid’s strike was the only consolation for the beaten hosts.

Brook Farm Rovers moved off the bottom of the table as they held Brady FC to a 2-2 draw. Oli Assor and Mark Pearce scored for Rovers, with Brady missing a penalty. Rovers’ Toby Nathan said afterwards: “It was a significant improvement from last week’s extremely poor display. We’re disappointed not to hold on for the three points, but a penalty save from Ben Pollins was a huge moment in the game.” Jack Brand and Benjamin Feldman were on target for Brady.

Zev Grunwald scored his first goal for Mill Hill Dons with a stunning 25-yard strike, but that was as good as it got for his side as Redbridge Jewish Care went on to win the game 3-1 and finish the day in fourth spot. Bailey Brown scored twice, with Ben Oldstein also on target.

Division Two leaders Sukkotingham Forest dropped their first points of the season as Rapid Viennas came away with a 0-0 draw. Viennas’ Louis Jay said: “It was a class performance from all the boys today. From our previous game against them, where we lost 8-1, we decided that wasn’t going to happen again and we would make sure we picked up at least one point. A massive shout out to the whole team who made our 0-0 draw very special.”

Temple Fortune spurned the chance to close the gap on the leaders as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Mill Hill Minyan. Maurice Sugarman gave Minyan the lead and stand-in Fortune’s Adam Speck saved a penalty to deny them doubling their lead. Fortune’s leading goalscorer

Michael Goldberg-Jacobs netted the equaliser for the Yellows in the 82nd minute.

Beitar Bushey moved off the bottom of the table by coming away from 40 Year Wanderers with a 4-1 win. Ben Mandell hit two, with a Ross Mansell strike and an own goal completing the scoring. Manager Aaron Conway said: “From conceding a disappointing last-minute goal last week, the boys came today with a fantastic attitude and mentality. Every single player ran their socks off. I’m so proud of every single one of them.”

HMH Camden moved up into joint-fourth spot thanks to a 5-3 win over Bocher Juniors. Charles Samet scored twice for Juniors, with Solly Levy also on target. Manager Joel Ucko said: “Gutted to have lost. It’s a reality check, but one that has taught us some good lessons. It was clear we were affected by the absence of Dani Rubenstein, but we wish him mazel tov on his engagement.”

Maccabi London Sunday Vets A booked their place into the third round of the Peter Morrison Trophy as they won 3-1 at Hampstead Ducks.

Scrabble moved to within three points of the Maccabi Masters Football League leaders thanks to a 5-0 win over a depleted Temple Fortune side. Jeremy Teacher, Andrew Binstock, Tony Plaskow, Jon Isaacs and Marc Wagman all on target.

Brady are up into third spot as two goals each from Gavin Sherman and Kevin Lotzof helped them to a 7-0 win over St John’s Wood Tigers. Martin Schultz, Jonathan Caplan and an own goal sealed the rout.

Hendon Harriers claimed their first league win of the season as Doro Shafira scored on his debut to secure a 1-0 win over Glenthorne.