With various Cup competitions and poor weather causing disruption to the league programme in recent times, Saturday marked a rare occurrence as all twenty-four Conference sides were in action on the same day.
The top four sides all recorded wins and the bottom four sides were all beaten, but the league table remains extremely tight at both ends, including three sides gunning for the title. As well as wins, all three of those sides recorded clean sheets on Saturday. Stevenage have played more matches than their challengers but maintained their lead at the top thanks to Stacey Long's brace in a 2-0 win at home to Kettering. This result sees The Poppies fall out of the top five.
Oxford trail by one point and have two games in hand, and they recorded their second big win over Grays this season, following up a 5-0 home win with a 4-0 win away. As well as games in hand, The U's unsurprisingly boast the division's best goal difference.
York boast the division's top goalscorer, and despite Richard Brodie failing to score his side came away from Cambridge United with a 1-0 win. This sets a club record ninth consecutive league win as The Minstermen look set to continue their recent charge up the table.
There follows a gap of seven points to the fourth placed team, but a battle is underway to secure the two other places, unless one of the current big three falls away dramatically in the final months. Mansfield climbed two places with a 4-0 trouncing of bottom club Chester, while Wimbledon fell to a single goal defeat at Wrexham.
Kettering's loss at Stevenage allowed two other sides to close the gap on the pack, as Rushden and Diamonds crushed Barrow 4-1 at home and Luton came away from Gateshead with a 1-0 win thanks to goalkeeper Paul Farman fumbling a cross into his own net. The two other sides in the top ten faced each other, as Crawley twice squandered a lead to draw with Kidderminster.
At the bottom of the division, Chester, Grays and Gateshead have already been mentioned and it is these three sides that take up the three lowest spots at this moment. Forest Green fell into the bottom four after losing a seven goal thriller at Ebbsfleet. Three times Rovers led and three times The Fleet struck back before Leon Crooks struck in stoppage time.
Forest Green are now a point behind their opponents but do hold three games in hand. Eastbourne drew 1-1 at Tamworth to move three points above the drop zone, while Barrow's loss at Rushden sees them five points above the bottom four.
The other action of Saturday saw Altrincham climb into the top half by coming from two down to see off Hayes and Yeading 3-2, while Matt Tubbs scored twice as Salisbury overcame ten-man Histon 3-0 at home. Adam Bygrave's sending off was the only one in the division all afternoon.
Four Conference games and four Trophy replays take place on Tuesday before the following round of Trophy action takes place at the weekend, with winners progressing to the Quarter Finals and increasing their hopes of a rewarding Wembley visit.
Matt Ramsay
