THE leaders of Division One in the Soccer Site Malvern League Oak Allstars entered 2004 as the only undefeated team in either Division but this changed when they visited their jinx team Talbot Head on Sunday.
In fact the only points Oak Allstars had dropped this season were on the first day of the season when they were held to a draw at home by Talbot Head, but just as last season they received a rude awakening when despite being 2-0 up at half time they went down 3-2 at The Hill Centre.
Talbot suffered a blow early in the game when their hero from the previous weeks cup win, goalie Gary Baldwin, was injured and was unable to continue.
He was replaced by Pete Docker who was beaten twice in the first half firstly when Jamie Gladwin broke through the home defence to drill the ball home and then some slack marking let in Zekley Coral for the second.
Talbot Head came out for the second half with a totally different attitude and with the introduction of substitute Andy Shepherd combined with the movement of Peter Gibbs and Luke Stallard into midfield, where they competed well with their high-riding opponents, they got back into the game when Luke Stallard converted a penalty. With the game being played in a hard, competitive but fair way Talbot pulled it back to 2-2 when from a corner Danny Briscoe rose to head the ball home.
With both sides looking for a winner play swung from end to end before Talbot scored the winning goal in the 85th minute following an excellent move, there was a good interchange of passes down the wing before the ball was cut back to the edge of the Oak Allstars area by David Schooling. Peter Gibbs received it and looking up sent in a cleverly judged chip which found the head of Andy Shepherd who made no mistake. The last five minutes saw Oak Allstars push forward looking for an equaliser but Talbot's defence held firm to take all three points from a game which was a credit to the league.
The division's only other game saw Kempsey United A beat visitors Club AC 30 by 3-1. Things didn't look too good for the home side who were forced by injuries and 'non arrivals' to play with 10 men all game when the visitors took the lead midway through the first half with a Jonathan Creba header but this proved to be almost Club AC 30's only real chance of the game.
Kempsey showed a real battling attitude to hit back with firstly a goal from Stuart Stanton, who ran through the visiting defence to power a shot home and the same player made it 2-1 at half time when he converted a cross from Alex Freeman.
Kempsey tied the game up in the second half when Lee Allen capitalised on a defensive mix up to make it 3-1.
Division Two continued to be full of twists and turns as once again it was all change in places at the top. Previous leaders Bell Inn 98 dropped down to fourth place when their game with Vauxhall AFC was postponed.
Dynamo Ledbury regained top spot with a comfortable 10-0 victory over visitors Perowne Park Rangers thanks to goals from Daniel Lucas, Richard Punt, two apiece from Matt Grey and John Walker with captain Adam Thomas netting four. Madresfield moved into second place courtesy of a 11-0 victory over visiting Great Malvern with goals from Wayne Eggerton, Rob Barnett, two from Wayne Cadmore, a Gordon Mansell hat-trick and four from Adam Morse.
In the day's only other game Cross Keys visited Cavalry Arms and they were made to work hard for the points before notching up a 2-0 victory.
With Rob Jones causing the visitors defence problems Cavalry had several chances to take the lead but a combination of poor finishing and good goalkeeping by Keys keeper Ryan Mears kept them out. Cross Keys also had several chances but were also denied by good goalkeeping from Matt Pearce before Anthony Smith gave them the lead.
The second half was a similar tale with both goalkeepers in fine form and the only other goal scored came from Jamie Thomas to move Cross Keys up to third place.
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