Matchday #14: Results and Updated League Tables

Championship

Blyth Spartans 3  Red Star Mossley 0
Dynamo Burnley 2  Stalybridge Celtic 1
Gainsborough Trinity 2  Audenshaw Dynamo 1
Hartlepool Petrochemical 2  Excelsior Marlow 3
Liverpool St Helens 2  Hungaria 0
Locomotive Crewe Alexandra 1  Wrexham 1
Marine 1  Manchester Central 2
Northwich Victoria 5  Spartak-Slavia 3

Second Division

Bohemians 2  Torpedo Tranmere 2
Bradford Park Avenue 2  Newcastle Blue Star 0
Caledonia Thistle 5  Merthyr Tydfil 2
Crystal Palace 4  South Liverpool Red Star 0
Excelsior Benelux 2  Manchester Newton Heath 1
Hendon Hotspur 3  Atletico Espanol 2
Inter-Italiano 1  Marxist Polytechnic 1
Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo 1  Sheffield Wednesday 5

 

 

Defeats for each of this morning’s Championship top three has enabled Liverpool St Helens to move up into second place and stake their claim as title contenders as the season approaches its mid-term break after the next round of fixtures. Saints’ fourth consecutive victory after the 7 – 1 derby humiliation at Marine that precipitated a change of management means they now sit on the leaders’ shoulder, just a point behind the Mariners, who themselves were falling to a second successive defeat, and first of the season at home, surprisingly to consistently inconsistent Manchester Central, already also conquerors of Stalybridge Celtic but whose previous outing brought abject defeat at neighbours Audenshaw, that following a 7- 1 thrashing of Wrexham, the very team who then brought Marine’s ten-game unbeaten run to end last week: uncertain times indeed.

Stalybridge meanwhile were going down equally surprisingly at struggling Burnley, their fourth defeat of the season on the road but the first outside of Greater Manchester, enabling Dynamo to gain two crucial points and, although remaining second-bottom, at least keep pace with the teams immediately above them, with Blyth Spartans also tasting victory with a comprehensive 3 – 0 win over an insipid Red Star Mossley whose recent away form has faltered badly, Locomotive Crewe Alexandra arresting a three-match losing streak with a point at home to Wrexham and Excelsior Marlow coming out on top of a five-goal thriller at hapless Hartlepool Petrochemical, now ever-more firmly entrenched at the foot of the table and appearing certainties for relegation which will be a significant blow to the aspirations of the newly-formed north-east ‘super club’.

 

Northwich Victoria were impressive 5 – 3 goalfest victors against Spartak-Slavia, who began the day in third but consequently slipped a place, whilst Gainsborough Trinity kept in touch with the leading group by beating Audenshaw Dynamo by the odd goal in three, which result drops the losers three places to thirteenth and very much into the relegation mix.

 

In the Second Division, Sheffield Wednesday’s 5 -1 demolition job at fast-fading Newcastle-Gateshead Dynamo, their fourth victory on the bounce, enabled the Owls to take flight to the summit, replacing Marxist Polytechnic after the students’ draw at Inter-Italiano, with fellow victors Crystal Palace and Bradford Park Avenue (another Yorkshire club on a four-game winning spree, with an admirably stingy no goals conceded along the way) tucked-in close behind after Bohemians and Torpedo Tranmere also fought out an ultimate stalemate, trading four goals equally between them.  Hendon Hotspur’s narrow triumph over basement dwellers Atletico Espanol makes the top seven and the promotion race very close indeed.