Genesis to test Hermes' perfect start

Pegasus may have conceded their first goals of the season on Tuesday night but their 6-2 league victory over bottom club Coleraine means they go into tomorrow's meeting against Portadown not having lost a game, in any competition, for a remarkable 408 days. The record stretches back to September of last year when they were beaten by Victorians in the league, a defeat Pegasus avenged in the return match and twice more this season, when they won 7-0 and 6-0 in their league and Ulster Shield meetings. Last season's Grand Slam winners have now scored 42 goals in seven games, with Coleraine's South African player-coach Caryn Bentley the only player to find a way past Pegasus goalkeeper Donna Hawthorne this season.

Bentley's two goals on Tuesday night (the first from open play and the second from a penalty stroke) brought her personal tally to 10 goals in four games.

Player-coach Jeanette Turner, in her first season in charge of the Belfast club, has conceded that life is proving just a little too easy for Pegasus. So much so the club has arranged games against Portadown and Queen's men's teams to help their preparations for next month's Irish Senior Cup tie against Pembroke Wanderers. While Leinster champions Hermes have, so far, matched their Ulster rival's 100 per cent winning start to the season, they know they will have to work considerably harder to retain their title. They have yet to play Muckross, Loreto or Old Alexandra and tomorrow face a Genesis side that has had an encouragingly bright start to the season.

Last week's 2-0 win against Glenanne lifted Genesis to joint fourth (with Muckross) in the table and they have already matched their points total for all of last season (nine). At Santry tomorrow Muckross play Trinity, the only team to beat them in the league last season. The students, however, have had a traditionally slow start to the new campaign and are second from bottom of the table after losing three of their opening four games.

Loreto, who have played a game more than Hermes, will hope to at least maintain their one-point lead at the top of the table by beating Glenanne in Tallaght while Old Alexandra, who are in second place, level on 12 points with Hermes, play Pembroke Wanderers at Serpentine Avenue. Clontarf, who were docked three points last week after conceding a walkover to Old Alex, meet the Jekyll and Hyde of this season's Statoil Leinster League, Railway Union, at Dardistown.