A goal of the highest quality gave Old Alexandra a richly deserved win over Muckross at Rathdown on Saturday, a victory that stretches their lead at the top of the Statoil Leinster Senior League table to four points.

Two of the players who joined the club from Trinity last summer, Kerry Hiles and Jan Perrin, combined in the 42nd minute to restore Old Alexandra's lead after Muckross had equalised against the run of play. Marissa Ahern opened the scoring in the 25th minute when she slotted the ball past Fiona Brehony, the experienced stand-in for the injured Muckross goalkeeper Sandra O'Gorman, but Orla Bell levelled five minutes later when she converted her side's only short corner of the game.

Alexandra's domination of the game was reflected in their short corner count - 14 in all - but it was from play that they scored their winner. Hiles picked out Perrin, at the edge of the Muckross circle, with a superb pass from her right-back position and the forward kept her composure to round the on-rushing Brehony and fire her side into the lead. It was Old Alexandra's second league win over Muckross this season, to add to their recent defeat of champions Hermes, form that suggests they will be hard to remove from the top of the table before the end of the campaign. They only have one more fixture against fellow title contenders Hermes (on the final day of the season) while Muckross, Loreto and Hermes have all still to play each other.

"Hermes are a very good team and play lovely hockey so our win against them (last month) was huge - but they are still the team to beat," insisted Old Alexandra coach David Judge after Saturday's game.

Judge was thrilled with his team's display and picked out the defence, Tracey Skoyles in particular, for special mention. "Tracey was first class - she hits the ball better than almost anyone, and that includes men's hockey as well. In fact she's the best striker of the ball since I stopped playing," he said with a grin, "but that's off the record." Of course. Elsewhere it was a miserable weekend for South East teams in the Irish Junior Cup, three of whom lost in the quarter-finals. A Michelle Rainey goal in extra-time helped Pegasus II to a 2-1 win over Enniscorthy in Belfast while Kilkenny were beaten by Our Lady's Terenure and Wexford were knocked out by Munster's Church of Ireland II. Dublin's Diocesan, who beat UCC's seconds, complete the semi-final line-up.