Labelling his side as being ‘sensational in all aspects’, manager Josh Novack believes his side deserve to secure promotion – and are capable of doing so.
Reflecting back on their season to date, he says: “It’s been a season full of ups and downs. We started off very shaky, and it was looking like the season could get ugly. Since then, the boys have really turned it around, and they’re now working for both me and each other – and it shows.
“To be frank, I think we’re the most deserving of promotion, aside from the team in first place. We’re the only team to have taken points off them, and pending a good result in our next game, we’ll have taken points off every team in the league at some point. The form we’re in, we can definitely achieve promotion.
Sunday morning’s match saw Jack Warren open the scoring with a half-volley from the edge of the box, before Noah Rosenthal scored twice to make the game safe. Max Aston rounded off their scoring with a 35-yard strike.
Speaking about their performance, Novack said: “We were sensational in all aspects and most importantly won the physical battle, which was our downfall last time we played Temple Fortune [a 2-2 draw on the opening day of the season].
“The first half was particularly impressive and despite the horrible conditions, we managed to knock the ball about really well, which was extremely pleasing as our main focus in training has been playing out from the back and keeping possession.
“With all due respect to them, I think 4-1 slightly flatters Temple Fortune. We were definitely the deserved winners and it’s a real shame we couldn’t keep the clean sheet in the end. I’d say we just played better football, but also won the midfield battle which for me is the most important thing in this league. That’s credit to Max Aston, Jack Warren and Henry Waterer who didn’t stop running throughout the 90 minutes.”
Winning promotion would wrap up a dream debut season for the club, and speaking about their first year of MGBSFL football, Novack added: “We’ve loved it, absolutely loved it. It’s a lot of the players’ first Sunday League season in years and it’s been a joy so far.”
Sammy Samuelson scored for Fortune for whom manager Stevie Allen said: “I was very proud of the team’s performance – we battled until the end in difficult conditions and played some great football throughout the match. We created several great chances, hit the crossbar, on another day those goals go in and we have a different match. Credit to them, they took their chances and on that level we have no complaints.”
Still sitting in second place, Allen added: “We will have to wait for other results, but promotion is an outside chance at best, we weren’t consistent enough throughout the season to warrant an automatic promotion spot. We’ve played some brilliant matches and have let ourselves down in others. Our squad is unique to the League in that we have a wide range of ages (19-43 year-olds) and are in our second year of an exciting project. In the coming seasons we will have a consistently competitive team with a pathway for young players to enter the league and participate in Jewish football. There are still cup matches to play this season so a trophy is not out of the question and we look forward to our next league match against leaders Sukkotingham Forest to avenge our earlier loss to them, it was a close match and we know we can go one better to bag all three points this time.”
The weather put pay to Forest claiming a win to secure the title, but the other game that did get played in the division was an eight-goal thriller as HMH Camden and Mill Hill Minyan played out a 4-4 draw. The point sees Camden move up into joint-third in the table, while Minyan are now two points clear off the bottom two.
Hendon United increased their lead at the top of the Premier Division to seven points as two first half goals from Yehuda Korman saw them come away from bottom side Hapoel Hampstead with a 2-1 win. Jack Naftalin scored for Hampstead.
Yallatasary secured promotion to the Premier Division and moved to within one victory of securing the Division One title as they claimed their 11th consecutive win – from 11 games played – with a comfortable 6-1 win at Hampstead Ducks.
Freddie Land helped himself to a hat-trick, with Sammy Kebede also on target. Manager Buddy Smith said: “It was a brilliant attacking performance, I’m so incredibly proud of this club and the boys that have worked so hard to make this possible.” A win against Brady Football Club next Sunday morning will see them crowned champions.
HMH B are up into fifth place in the table as they claimed an impressive 6-1 win over Mill Hill Dons. Noah Zemmel and Harry Earle scored two each, with Zak Nyman and Noah Oakley also on target. Manager Nick Berger said: “We dominated the game, but I’m annoyed about conceding a soft penalty..”
Redbridge Jewish Care took advantage of Dons losing to leapfrog them into third place in the table, thanks to a 3-2 win at Brook Farm Rovers. Adam Ellis and Daniel Shapiro scored for Rovers, with Toby Nathan saying: “We created far more and deserved the three points, but a strange decision 10 minutes from time, followed by a great Redbridge long-range strike meant we unfairly left the game with nothing.”
There was one game played in the Maccabi Masters Football League and it saw Temple Fortune Old Boys and St John’s Wood Tigers play out a 2-2 draw. Grant Taylor and Adam Barton netted for Tigers, though Fortune twice hit back through an Ed Lewin goal on his debut, and then Paul Franklin’s penalty. With all teams now having played each other, the league will split into two divisions for the remainder of the season.
