Estonia round-up: No change at the top

There was no change at the top of the Estonian Meistriliiga table following the latest round of matches at the weekend as leaders FC Flora and second-placed FC Levadia Maardu both won their games, beating JK Trans Narva 1-0 and JK Tulevik Viljandi 3-0 respectively.

Flora clear
Flora are still three points clear of Maardu with eight games to go as FC TVMK Tallinn moved into third place, overtaking Narva, but are still eight points behind the leaders.
 
Norwegian power
Tor Henning Hamre scored Flora's winner, the Norwegian following in the footsteps of his compatriot Glenn Atle Larsen who scored the decisive goal last week as Flora beat FC Lootus Kohtla-Järve. The goal came in the 69th minute after Marko Kristal's corner caused problems in the visitors' defence. The ball was partially cleared to Hamre who slammed a right-footed shot past a helpless Aleksandr Djatsenko. The Narva goalkeeper actually had an excellent match, as Flora dominated most of the 90 minutes.
 
Gruznov miss
Flora's pressure was incessant and in the 27th minute they had three chances cleared off the line in quick succession - the first a marvellous save by Djatsenko. Moments later Joel Lindpere sent a thundering shot just over the Narva bar. The visitors created their only clear chance after an hour, when Flora goalkeeper Martin Kaalma dropped Dmitri Lipartov's furious left-footed drive, but Narva's top-scorer, Maksim Gruznov, hit the rebound into the sidenetting. Flora won ten corners in the second half alone and eventually one of them paid off with Hamre scoring his 13th goal of the season.
 
Kotenko's unbeaten run
Maardu played host to Tulevik, knowing the Viljandi side had not beaten them in their previous 14 meetings. There was no change to the pattern on Sunday either, as Vitali Leitan opened the scoring as early as the third minute. The former Estonian international Argo Arbeiter added the second in the 64th minute and eight minutes later Leitan hit his tenth goal of the season. Maardu's goalkeeper Artur Kotenko, who turned 21 earlier this month, has now not conceded a goal in 398 minutes. However, to reach the Estonian all-time top ten, Kotenko still needs to keep a clean sheet in the next match. The Estonian record is held by Mart Poom, who is now at Derby County FC, with 756 minutes.
 
Krõlov hits four again
TVMK striker Andrei Krõlov seems determined to win the Meistriliiga top scorer award: he has now hit 24 goals in 20 games after putting four past FC Levadia Pärnu goalkeeper Ruslan Mironov in Sunday's 6-0 win in Pärnu. It is the third time Krõlov has hit four goals in a match this season and his sights will be set on Maksim Gruznov's record of 37 goals, which he set last season.
 
Ukrainian affair
FC Lootus Kohtla-Järve and FC Levadia Tallinn - who are fighting for sixth place which would secure a Meistriliiga spot for next season - drew 1-1 in Tallinn. Tallinn took the lead when the Ukrainian striker Yuriy Fenin converted a penalty in the 14th minute, but his compatriot Serhiy Burimenko equalised for the visitors 20 minutes later. Fenin has now scored all four of Levadia's goals in their last three matches after signing on loan from Pärnu.