MARY BARNWELL's eight goal in five games on Saturday was enough to maintain Loreto's 100 per cent start to the season and keep them on top of the Leinster Senior League.

However the club's three leading challengers - Old Alexandra, Muckross and, Hermes - all had comfortable victories in their fixtures and with just five weeks of the season gone the league is already shaping up in to a four team battle for the title.

Loreto were forced to work hard for their three points by Railway Union at Park Avenue and it was only a late strike by Barnwell that gave them their fifth win in five matches. Muckross had no such difficulties against Pembroke Wanderers, cruising to a 5-0 win, while Old Alexandra's 3-0 victory at Whitechurch further added to bottom of the table Clontarf's woes.

Meanwhile at Belfield Hermes came up against surprisingly stout resistance from a Maids team that already finds itself in relegation trouble. The home side's 3-0 victory was hard won but coach Roy Horsfield was just relieved that his team had taken maximum points against one of the division's weaker sides, something they haven't always done in recent seasons.

"We worked hard for our win - we created plenty of chances but didn't finish them off. Things are coming together for us and I'm certainly very happy with the way we've started. I told the team before the match that these are the kind of games we have to win if we are serious about challenging for the league so we'll settle for a 3-0 victory," said Horsfield.

Hermes captain Helen Kilroy was also relieved at full time to have taken the three points against Maids. "We know we need to be more focussed when we're playing the weaker teams. There's no trouble getting yourself fired up when you're playing Muckross, Loreto or Old Alexandra but there's not much point doing well against them if you're going to drop points against the rest of the teams," said Kilroy.

"It's very, very hard to win this league. Muckross only dropped three points all last season, we've already dropped four so does that mean we have to win all our remaining matches? We need the spoils to be shared a bit more if we are to have a chance of winning the league so hopefully Old Alexandra, Loreto and Muckross will take points off each other," added the Hermes captain.

Kilroy is in her eighth season with Hermes, her fourth as captain, and while she concedes that it won't be easy for any team to remove the Muckross grip from the title she is confident that Hermes are in good shape for the battle ahead.