The Ship piled further misery on Kew Antigua with a repeat of last week's convincing 3-0 victory. Doubts were raised over the playability of Pitch 5 at Riverside Lands, but there fears proved entirely unfounded after Simon cleared standing water in his goalmouth with that essential piece of goalkeeping kit - a plank of wood. The Ship began with their customary early defensive lapse, but soon settled into a rhythm of crisp passing and smooth interplay, with James and Adi linking up particularly effectively on the left wing and Anthony slotting comfortably into central midfield in place of Kieran. A series of dangerous corners from Chris finally led to the opener on the half-hour, as an unmarked Alex nodded home from inside the six-yard box, with the Kew defence rather preoccupied by Kev The Towering Inferno. The Ship continued to wreak havoc down Kew's right side and one superb, flowing move led to Chris poking a shot just past the post as the home side dominated. Kew's rare openings came either on the break or from some complacent Ship showboating at the back, but Simon remained largely untested throughout (except a call from his local constabulary at half-time).
Digger's half-time analysis brought The Ship back down to earth as they realised the importance of a second goal to kill off the ever-willing but fortunately rather unable Kew. This duly arrived within sixty seconds of the restart when Tom Logan (who narrowly escapes the label of "tireless" on account of very likely being a bit tired of being labelled "tireless") was bundled over unceremoniously. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and, with a distinct lack of volunteers, midfield prompter Colesy stepped up and despatched his kick with total authority into the bottom corner. Kew continued to battle but knew another defeat was imminent and The Ship calmly began to exploit the gaps in a tiring backline. After countless fruitful sojourns down the left wing in the first half, The Ship were now terrorising the opposite wing, with Man of the Match Alex combining with Chris on a string of counter-attacks. A third goal was inevitable and, as Alex (who had bravely removed his thermal gloves in the late February sunshine) dropped deep and picked out the run of Chris, whose looped effort sailed over the Kew keeper. Their No.1 had another excellent game attempting to keep a goal-hungry Ship at bay, saving a rasping volley from James, while the crossbar denied Tom Logan a deserved goal in the dying moments.
News filtered through of league leaders Santar's lucky escape from 2-0 down this morning, but The Ship piled into the back of Digger's van satisfied with another committed, assured performance (with the only lost tackles being Colesy's hilarious 50-50 challenges with two puddles). With the defence now looking meaner than ever before, and the goal difference creeping up, the title race looks set to go to the wire.
