So in August the constitution was finalised with 10 Premier division teams expected to battle it out for the crown of Alliance League Premier Division champions. The Alliance Premiership is generally acknowledged to be the strongest Sunday Premier Division in Leicestershire. Pre-season favourites were again Scraptoft Garage despite rumours circling about their participation. Advance Couriers of course were expected to be up at the sharp end with Premier Sports Travel, Bulls Head Athletic and GT also having sights on the prize.
Glenfield Town and Magna 73 Rangers had made strides forward to get closer to the pack whilst not much was expected from the 3 promoted clubs of Sparta Moshdock, Perrin Rangers and Kirby Muxloe Rangers.
The rumours about reigning champions Scraptoft Garage were confirmed in the week leading up to the first game of the season as they folded, also Perrin Rangers were struggling to field a side with rumours strife that they too would fold but they started the season.
The opening day provided an insight in what was to come. Advance Couriers smashed a much fancied Bulls Head Athletic 7-1. Bulls Head had signed many Scraptoft Garage players from the season before including Wes Gibson, Luke Day and Stacy Coore but Advance were ruthless. Ogden scoring a debut hat trick after his switch from Magna 73, Wheeler added 2 in what would be another fantastic season for him with Jake Limbert & Liam O’Flynn adding the final touches.
Premier Sports Travel had to rely on 3 individual touches of brilliance from Shaun Barber to overcome a revitalised Magna 73 Rangers 4-2 whilst Glenfield Town beat Perrin Rangers 3-0 and GT were held 1-1 by Kirby Muxloe Rangers at Western Park.
Sparta Moshdock had to wait to week 2 to be introduced to Premier Division football and they found it tough losing 3-0 to Glenfield Town who had started the season very brightly with 2 wins, this game would have dramatic effects for Sparta Moshdock as they played an illegible player and were docked 2pts – no one could see at this stage just how good a season they were to have in their debut season at this level.
Also in week 2 Kirby Muxloe found Advance too hot to handle going down 5-0 – Wheeler with a customary hat trick, There were also wins for GT at Bulls Head Athletic and Magna 73 at Perrin Rangers.
On week 3, there were only 2 games played in the Premiership but there was a significant result as Premier Sports Travel added to the woes of Bulls Head Athletic, defeating them 6-1. Curtis McCabe with 4 including one from the half way line! It was at this point the Bulls Head season started to unravel, lack of commitment was starting to become an issue with one of the title favourites after such a brilliant debut season. The other game though proved to be the end of Perrin Rangers as they went down 11-0 to GT – a result that took GT top of the table, during the week Perrin resigned meaning that Glenfield, Magna 73 and GT all lost their 3pts.
At the end of September the league table looked like this
Into October and Magna 73 Rangers somehow pulled of a shock 2-1 win over Advance Couriers. Tom Cartwright and a late Phil Howard free kick doing the damage, Advance were their own worst enemies though as they ended the game with 9 men after Tony Maisto and Ryan Ogden saw red. For Magna this was a FOURTH consecutive win including a fabulous win in the Premier Cup away at Loughborough Falcons the week before. I don’t think anyone could foresee the Magna collapse that was to happen. Glenfield Town piled on more misery for Bulls Head beating them 6-3, 2 Rich Saunders goals gave GT a 3-1 win at Kirby Muxloe whilst Premier Sports Travel had to work extremely hard to beat Sparta Moshdock 3-2 at Horsewell Lane.
Just 3 days later Magna 73 Rangers and Bulls Head Athletic locked horns on a Wednesday night at Aylestone Park. Magna full of confidence after 4 straight wins against a Bulls Head side on the back of 4 straight defeats. It was a cracking game but Bulls Head – able to call upon some big guns for the first time – were too good for Magna 73 winning 5-2 thanks to Pearson Mwangyongo, Ebony Asante, Kyle Avossa, Robbie Johnson and Liam Duffield, however Bulls Head failed to build on this win and lost to Sparta Moshdock the following Sunday 2-1.
Magna also lost at Western Park to GT 5-4 in a tough tackling game not helped by the referee’s performance, Premier Sports Travel – quietly going about their business thrashed Kirby Muxloe Rangers 7-0, Mark Graham with 5.
At the end of October, the table looked like this
November started with Advance Couriers coming back from 2-0 down to scrape a 2-2 draw with neighbours Sparta Moshdock, GT took advantage of Premier Sports not playing and went top of the table after a 2-1 against Glenfield Town, Magna 73 Rangers were reduced to 10 men against Kirby Muxloe Rangers when Adam Jenkins saw red and thus were held to a 2-2 draw. Despite the obvious disappointment at not beating 10 men, Kirby Muxloe went to Gynsill Lane the week after and thrashed Glenfield Town 5-2 in what was unfortunately there only win of the season. Mark Brown (2), Luke Holyoak, Matt Copson and Liam McNairn with the goals.
Still in November and Kirby Muxloe beat Bulls Head Athletic in what was back to back wins but this proved a game to much for the Bullies and despite being one of the title favourites, they resigned 2 weeks later. Premier Sports Travel were awful for the first 30 minutes against Magna 73 Rangers and could have easily found themselves 3-0 down if it wasn’t for the exploits of Andy Taylor but a debatable Mark Graham goal sent them on their way to a comfortable 5-0 win to stay in control of the Alliance Premiership going into December.
The last week of November saw Advance finally end GT ‘s unbeaten start with a tight 2-1 win at Western Park whilst Sparta Moshdock beat Magna 73 Rangers 2-1 at the Meadows Sports Ground.
At the end of November the table looked like this, note Bulls Head have yet to fold
December saw the biggest game of the season so far as Advance Couriers closed the gap to Premier Sports to 2pts after a 4-2 win. Simon Goodman, Tony Maisto, Danny Kitching and Jordan Lever with the goals. This defeat for Premier Sports would start a train of some bad results. That result gave the chance for GT to go back top but they lost 5-3 to Magna 73 Rangers, a side they had beaten 2 times already and they dropped to 3rd behind Advance. Those 2 games were the only 2 Alliance Premiership games played over December as Billy Walton, Arthur Moore and County cups dominated the month. Heading into 2012 the league table looked like this.
Like December, January saw a limited amount of games played, however it proved to be a good month for Sparta Moshdock who beat Kirby Muxloe Rangers and most significantly Premier Sports Travel back to back. There was controversy at Horsewell Lane as 5 Magna 73 players refused to play Advance Couriers citing a frozen pitch and health & safety, it would end up costing Magna 1pt and over £100 in fines. The last game in January saw Advance and Premier Sports Travel draw 1-1. It was an awful run of results for Premier but they stopped the rot with this point.
Due to 3 teams folding over the course of the season, only 1 or 2 Premiership games per week were being played as we headed into February which turned out to be a bad month for the weather. It was a difficult month for Kirby Muxloe who had to play both Advance and Premier Sports back to back going down 7-0 and 4-1 respectively, GT dented Sparta Moshdock’s surprise title push with a 3-1 win at Western Park thanks to goals from Ben Law (2) and Adam Taylor. Advance Couriers also beat Glenfield Town 3-1. At the end of February, the table looked like this.
March started with Sparta Moshdock slamming 8 past Glenfield to reignite there surprising title charge – Aaron Preston with 5 and a week later they dismissed Magna 73 in a feisty game 2-1, Premier Sports Travel won a tough encounter with GT 3-1 to go top by 2pts.
2 weeks later and Sparta Moshdock are on red hot form as they thrash GT 4-0 thanks to a hat trick by Mark Preston a result that puts Sparta Moshdock TOP of the Alliance Premiership but this wasn’t the biggest result of the day. Glenfield Town beat Advance Couriers 1-0 with 9 MEN after confusion with the naming of the subs meant that neither side could make substitutions during the game, subsequently 2 Glenny players got injured but they still pulled off a quite remarkable result that gave the advantage in the title race to Premier Sports Travel.
Also on this significant day in the title race, Magna 73 failed to fulfil a fixture with Kirby Muxloe Rangers showing just how far they had deteriated since that win against Advance in October. This was the table heading into the final month of the campaign
On April fools day, both Advance and Prem Sports won comfortably to overhaul Sparta Moshdock. Premier Sports won 4-0 at home to faltering GT whilst Advance thrashed Magna 73 6-1. Glenfield Town kept up there good recent form with a 2-0 win against Kirby Muxloe Rangers.
Premier still 2pts clear with 2 to go played Glenfield Town at Gynsil Lane and in what could have been a tricky game, they won 3-0.
All this meant that victory in the return game against Glenfield Town at Daykn Road would crown Premier Sports Travel as champions for only the 2nd time, it was a nervy start for the leaders but in the end the title was secured with a comfortable 5-1 win. Ross Clafferty, Shaun Barber, Dan Smith, Clint Gunn and Mark Graham with the goals.
On the same day Sparta Moshdock beat Advance Couriers 3-2 which made them the only team Advance failed to beat all season in the league which meant that Advance had to win the last game of the season to even claim runners up spot.
Advance duly won 5-2 against GT and finished 2nd but 5pts behind the champions and deserved winners Premier Sports Travel.
These are the final standings
Prem review team by team
Premier Sports Travel – Not fancied by many to take the title at the start of the season, Premier Sports Travel duly won their first crown since 2008. Andy Taylor in goal produced some heroic performances as did Shaun Barber who scores some worldies during the campaign. They reacted to a dodgy mid season dip that looked like it could cost them the title and went on a 5 game winning streak at the end of the season after a draw against Advance.
Advance Couriers – Runners up for a 2nd straight year for Advance but the 5pt gap will be alarming. Losing to teams they don’t usual lose against in the form of Magna 73 and Glenfield Town will be a shock for them. Still they won the Arthur Moore cup and are strong favourites for the Billy Walton so it’s not all that bad.
Sparta Moshdock – I don’t think I can offer many more plaudits for them. Many people such as myself I’d like to add expected Sparta to struggle in the top flight, this looked proven when they fell to to Glenfield Town and had points deducted early on, but they hit form beating everyone in sight and by rights should have finished 2nd if it wasn’t for a plain admin error. Can they win it next year. Sparta Moshdock should be the example to all teams coming up from Div 1, no bottlers, they believed in their own ability and got the rewards.
GT – After a very good start they disappeared in the 2nd half of the season. GT started the season on fire And were rightly considered as title challengers but just 1 win after Christmas ended all that. The reason’s are unknown to me, I think they had the same squad, they are a hard working bunch, I suppose it just didn’t work out in the end.
Glenfield Town – A good side who’s 14pts was a considerable improvement from last season. A new manager in Paul Pallett seemed to have freshened things up but they didn’t really get there league campign under way until March which meant they had to bundle all there games together in mid-week so we didn’t get a full understanding of where Glenfield Town could have finished given a normal week by week league campaign that the others enjoyed.
Magna 73 Rangers – Magna started the season with the strongest squad in there history ready to tackle the Alliance Premiership, it all looked so promising early on but it quickly dawned that although talented the squad was not committed to the cause as the winter months arrived and one by one they all flew the nest leaving Magna threadbare for big cup and league games. 2 postponements for failing to fulfil fixtures tells its own story.
Kirby Muxloe Rangers – Many feared they would be out of there depth and this was proved. Just 1 win to show for their efforts which were considerable to be fair.
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Mon 14 May 2012, 5:21 pm
