Brady Maccabi lead the way in the Premier Division following a hard fought 2-1 win against Maccabi London Lions White.
A Reiss Mogilner brace, including a penalty, put Maccabi ahead 2-0 before Tyler Smith pulled a goal back but Lions could not force an equaliser.
“We dominated the first half but let them back in the second half, though we did enough to hold on for the win,” said Brady boss Joel Nathan.
“Marc Rister was superb today in the middle of the park and covered more miles than anyone making sure we held onto our lead. Stanley Offord also showed why, for me, he is the best left-sided wing-back in the league as he ran the Lions right-hand side ragged.”
The title race will be close run as Oakwood A won a third consecutive game following a 4-0 win at Camden Park.
Daniel’s Kristall’s team is joint third, four points adrift of top spot, with games in hand.
Toby Levy opened the scoring for Oakwood with a 25-yard strike from the edge of the box that gave the Camden keeper no chance.
The title chasers doubled the lead after Leor Sidle tapped home after a goalmouth scramble, the third came from a flying header by Camden’s Josh Tiano for an own goal.
Jonny Quinn completed the scoring with a neat finish.
Oakwood keeper Joe Botchin kept a clean sheet on his debut, while winger Josh Cuby set up three goals with an impressive performance.
“This was a good win against an in-form Camden side,” said Kristall.
“Ultimately, we had too much quality, power and pace for them and scored some nice goals although we were quite wasteful for an hour. This was mainly due to our decision-making and finishing and we know that this could hurt us in the weeks to come.”
Kristall added, “Fair play to Camden who defended well for an hour. We wish them well until we next meet them in the league.
“Camden have enough battling qualities to stay in the division and have already beaten a few good teams this season.
“As for us, we take the positives from this one, will work on a few things and go one game at a time. We now focus all of our efforts towards a huge game with Hendon United Sports on Sunday.”
“We were in the game until 60 minutes then fell behind to a great strike from outside the box,” said Camden manager Stirling Kay.
“We stopped them getting behind us and Oakwood were getting very frustrated but we then lost two forwards to injury, so our attack threat was minimal which left us with little cutting edge.
“The second half we worked very hard but felt that if we had more attacking options we could have made it a far closer game.
“Defensively we were very good but have to do much better in the last third of the pitch.”
Hendon, like Oakwood, have an unblemished start to the campaign, and picked up a second win with a 5-3 victory in a thrilling goal fest against Maccabi London Lions Blue.
Dovi Feuler (2), Avi Korman, Creg Corin and Yaov Kestenbaum scored the Hendon goals.
Joshua Bloom (2) and Jordan Aspis scored for the Lions.
“We knew what to expect from previous matches against Hendon,” said Lions manager Sam Marchant. “They are a very well structured team with a consistent game plan and play very tidy football.
“The game was open in the first 10 minutes, we found ourselves a goal up then a minute later back level. Our heads dropped and we conceded again shortly after, but made it 2-2. Hendon took the lead on the stroke of half-time but we came out well with more intent, equalised and the game appeared to be heading in our favour until we conceded against the run of play.
“Hendon shut-up shop and we struggled to break through, conceded again with a minute remaining when we had pushed up too far to try to equalise.”
Marchant added, “For the first time this season, the better team did win.
On another day it could have been a very different story.
We have a lot to learn, every week teaches us new things about the game at the top level and we will use these lessons to improve week-on-week.
Hendon showed today why they’ve been one of the best teams over the years and we look forward to the return.”
Faithfold A returned to winning ways following their cup exit last time out to stay two points clear in Division One after a 5-2 win at Los Blancos.
The hosts struggled to contain live-wire Faithfold wingers David Leiwy and Avi Garson who drew a string of fouls, one ‘of which led to the opening goal when Dovi Vogel whipped in a free kick that deceived the Blancos keeper.
Los Blancos leveled but Garson found Avi Markiewicz who timed his run to perfection to score. Moments later, Louis Naghten whisked past three opponents before a delightful chip from outside the box hit the target.
Player-boss Markiewicz fired home a long range effort and almost completed his hat-trick with an audacious bicycle kick from the edge of the box.
Zalmi Cohen sealed the win with a neat side foot.
Blancos scored a consolation goal from the penalty spot.
“We bounced back hard and extended our unbeaten run in style against a physical well-drilled side who are one of the favourites for promotion,” said Markiewicz.
“We were switched on from the start testing the opposition keeper numerous times. Our game plan was to get the ball as wide and as quickly as possible and to keep the tempo going.
The game ebbed and flowed with each team having periods of domination but overall we had the clearer chances, were better over the 90 minutes and had scored with some moments of individual magic.”
Scrabble, who hit 11 goals last time out, continue to bang in the goals after a 6-1 win against Temple Fortune A.
Craig Edwards (2), Ben Bowers, Lorian Madanes, Zak McLeod and Zak Summerfield hit the target.
“Temple Fortune made it very difficult for us today, working hard to deny us space and getting a lot of players behind the ball early on. But once we broke through with the first couple of goals the game changed and we were able to exploit the gaps as they came forward,” said manager Ray Abrahams.
“There were some big performances out there today and we had to work hard for the three points.
It’s getting interesting at the top now with Blancos losing for the first time today, and as I’ve said all season, the promotion places will go right to the wire with four teams in contention.”
Abrahams added, “I’m pleased we have got a couple of weeks before our next game as we are carrying knocks and minor injuries to some of the lads and we will have a chance to recover.
We’ve got a real buzz around the squad at the moment, the camaraderie within the group is incredible this season and there are a lot of goals in this team from all areas.
For 40 minutes we held our own, unfortunately we do not have the squad to cope with three injuries that left us depleted in the second half,” said Fortune boss Simon Linden.
“We can turn this around, I’m confident we can beat the teams fighting with us to stay up.”
North London Raiders moved into third place following a 2-1 win over Redbridge Jewish Care C.
“I’m delighted with the three points, it was a resolute performance but if we had been more clinical we could have scored more goals,” said Jonathan Adelman of Raiders.
Meantime, Oakwood B shared the spoils in a thrilling 3-3 draw against Redbridge Jewish Care B.
Dan Seligman, Dan Ash and Dan Selwyn scored for Oakwood.
Dan Gordon notched a hat-trick for the visitors.
“Another unbelievable day at the office,” commented Oakwood manager Jason Stein.
“Any other team would have won the game yesterday, but yet again we find unique ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
We scored three stunning goals only to concede three goals. It’s unbelievable the defensive errors we make, I keep saying to the boys it’s all about focus.”
Stein added, “Fair play to the Redbridge keeper, who made four stunning saves to keep them level, he was amazing.
In my time at Oakwood B, I’ve never seen the team playing as well. We’ve scored 22 goals in seven games. We’re dominating possession but our defending is quite frankly pathetic.”
Bayern Mincha are three points clear at the top of Division Two after a 4-2 win at Straw Hat Pirates.
Adam Ellis (2), Jake Dayan and Alon Pinhas struck the goals for the victors.
Ben Mandell scored twice for Pirates.
FC Team thumped Faithfold B 8-1.
Mitch Young hit four goals, Danny Moss (2), Richard Salmon and James Korn.
“We played some excellent attacking football and scored some excellent goals,” said player-manager Young.
“We could and should have scored more but overall I’m very happy with the performance and what was also pleasing was Mossy returning from injury and Ashley’s debut.
We look forward to a tough test against Real Hendon next week.”
A Zach Cohen hat-trick kept Mill Hill Dons in the title race with a fine 5-1 win at Temple Fortune B.
Sammy Hakimian and an own goal completed the win.
“The boys were outstanding today,” said Dons’ assistant manager, Jamie Nagioff.
“We had a very clear game-plan going into the match and the players executed it perfectly.
It’s a joy to watch the squad continue to improve each week and we really look like a well-drilled outfit, with every player knowing their job and exactly what is expected of them.
We’re already looking forward to next week’s game and, I believe, if we keep playing the same way, we can beat any side in this division.”
Real Hendon edged past Catford & Bromley Maccabi in a 2-1 win to move away from the foot of the table.
Gav Noe opened the scoring with an audacious chip from the edge of the box after a quick break-away involving Rafi Addlestone and Benny Goldberg.
Catford leveled from the penalty spot but Noe proved the match winner when he tapped home a Chaim Gothold cross 10 minutes from time.
“It was an excellent result against a team that is up there at the top of the table,” said Motty Korman of Hendon. “It shows that when we have a full squad available we can match most teams in the division.
Gav returned to the side and scored both goals but we missed a number of good chances. Credit to their keeper but we should have been a few goals up at half time.”