Twelve clear as the Curfews win the battle of the top two

Chertsey Town boss Mark Harper was awarded the Vita Risk Solutions Manager of the Month Award last night, and if any side has confirmed the absence of an associated curse this season, it has been the Curfews. They proved it once more, defeating closest rivals Marlow to open up a twelve point lead at the top- with only seven matches remaining.

We’ve run out of superlatives to describe the Curfews performances this season, but last night was always likely to be a tense, tight, battle of attrition. It was a match that Marlow really had to win, and manager Mark Bartley summed up his feelings on social media after the game.

‘Not sure we deserved to lose, but we didn't really do enough to say we deserved to win tonight, and that was our remit. Lots of huffing and puffing and maybe it was just two sides cancelling each other out that led to a scrappy game.

Ultimate it wasn't our night.’

Mark is entirely right with his closing statement, and the home fans were able to celebrate with wild abandon after Oliver McCoy got the only goal of the game twenty four minutes from time. The hosts had found Marlow keeper Aaron Watkins in fabulous form- he even saved a penalty- but in the end even his efforts weren’t enough to stop the Curfews marching on. They are now a rather incredible TWENTY NINE games unbeaten, have lost only once this season, and it looks as if it would take a calamity of biblical proportions- a plague of Thames locusts, perhaps- to stop them from taking the title.

Our image shows Mark Harper (left) and Assistant Scott Tarr receiving the award from Peter Bowers.

Marlow are now tied for second place with Leatherhead, after the Tanners won narrowly at Ashford Town. This was another match with only one goal, but in this case it arrived early, Trevan Robinson opening the scoring after only eight minutes- his sixteenth goal of the season. With the strength of the Tanners defence the last thing you want to do is fall behind, and the Tangerines were unable to strike back, as Leatherhead recorded their seventeenth clean sheet of their league campaign. That, by the way, means they have failed to concede a goal in more than fifty percent of their matches.

Town are eleven points clear of the bottom two- although second bottom Binfield have three games in hand.

Raynes Park Vale and Westfield continued to fight over fifth place, and indeed both moved to within touching distance of fourth place with victory.

Vale welcomed Thatcham Town to South West London, and they’ll be delighted with three points- but goodness, they left it late. They delivered an early breakthrough- Jordan Gallagher opening the scoring after just nine minutes- and looked to have the match won when the Kingfishers went down to ten men with half an hour to do, Jordan Brown dismissed- but the visitors were awarded a spot kick ten minutes from time and grasped the lifeline with both hands, Owen Clark looking to have earned them a point. Three minutes into added time, however, Gallagher decided that he wasn’t happy with a draw, and his twenty second goal of the season gave the hosts three points and kept them fifth- level on points with fourth place Southall.

Westfield were on the road to Chipstead, three points rather important to both sides. Westfield had only one defeat from ten, whilst the Chips had ended an eleven match winless streak with victory over Uxbridge on Saturday, the three points allowing them to open up a ten point lead on second bottom Binfield- but with the Moles having games in hand they wanted to extend that still further. As it turned out the match had but one goal, and it went to the visitors, the in-form Jordan Alves scoring for the fifth match in a row and the tenth time this season, his goal after a quarter of an hour clinching the points for the visitors. Westfield stay sixth, one point behind both Southall and Raynes Park Vale with a game in hand.

Northwood welcomed Badshot Lea a speedy return match after the Baggies defeated the Woods four-nil on Saturday. The Woods were obviously stung by that defeat, and it was quite clear from the early stages that they weren’t going to countenance a repeat, as they cruised into a three-nil first half lead. Kofi Anokye-Boadi started what became a rout in the twenty first minute, a Lucas Sinclair double arriving before half time. On fifty three minutes Kane Fitzgerald got a goal back for the visitors, but that just provoked Northwood to greater heights, and just after the hour Sinclair completed his hat trick with the hosts fourth of the match. Three minutes later Dan Williams made it five, and the Woods still weren’t finished, Sinclair adding a fourth to make it six-one at the end.

Northwood are up to fourteenth.

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