An in-form Peel side gave an out-of-sorts Corinthians a real shellacking at a wet and windy Douglas Road to go top of the Canada Life Premier League on Saturday.

The match started at a cracking pace, with both teams working hard to master the conditions. After only three minutes, Josh Ridings shot just wide after a long through ball had deceived the home defence.

Peel were soon in the groove and some good play down the right wing by Daniel Pickering ended with Aaron Costain being fouled in the box and the effervescent Lee Gale opened the scoring with a nicely-taken penalty.

It was a landmark strike for the western winger as it was his 300th senior goal for the club, coming in his 365th appearance for the Douglas Road side.

The home team were now using the wind to their advantage, with Corinthians dropping deeper and deeper.

After more good play in midfield by Matt Woods and Andy Crennell, Pickering again latched on to a neat through ball and dinked a good pass into the box to allow Taylor Andrews the chance to score.

Almost immediately, it was 3-0 when again some slick play by Gale and Andrews ended with Pickering scoring an easy goal.

The away side tried to weather the storm and had a decent chance of their own when Ridings had a good shot well saved by Peel keeper Ryan Tate.

In the second half, the home side kept up the pace of play and a good run and shot by Costain narrowly went wide.

The away team responded when Ronan McDonnell played in Josh Cain whose shot was saved by Tate. At the other end, more good play by Gale allowed Costain to neatly place his shot into the net.

Peel soon scored again when Tomas Brown released substitute Sam Chapman who danced through a hesitant defence to score with ease.

Corinthians were now looking rather shellshocked and a lovely free-kick by Luke Doherty found Brown unmarked in the box who duly scored yet another goal for Peel.

The westerners kept up the relentless pressure and Gale scored again when he ran onto a peach of a ball from Brown and calmly placed his shot into the corner of the net.

Peel then had another good chance when that man Gale played in Brown again but his rasping strike was brilliantly saved by goalkeeper Jack Corran and it remained 7-0 at full-time. With Peel in this form, they will take some stopping in their title push and I can’t think of anything that could jinx them.

Round-up

All other games in the Canada Life Premier League, DPS Ltd Division Two and DPS Ltd Combination Two fell victim to the wet weather and waterlogged pitches.

The one other game that did go ahead on Saturday was in Canada Life Combination One at the Bowl where St Mary’s lost 0-3 to Rushen United. Joe Kelly led the way with a brace for the Spaniards and was joined on the scoresheet by Leo Treguartha.

On Sunday, three games went ahead in the Canada Life Women’s Floodlit Cup. Goals from Rebecca Cole (2), Jess Marshall (2) and Aifric O’Shea helped Douglas Royal beat Castletown 6-0, while a Becky Corkish double sealed a 2-0 win for Peel against Onchan.

Elsewhere, Corinthians were the biggest winners of the weekend with a 9-1 victoey against Malew thanks to braces from Jade Burden, Holly Sumner, Holly Stephen plus Milly Dawson, Kiera Griffiths and Emily Rawlins strikes.