Estonia round-up: Piiorja double floors TVMK

Two second-half goals from centre-back Raio Piiroja helped champions FC Flora come from behind twice to record a crucial 3-2 derby victory over their closest rivals TVMK Tallinn tonight.

Step closer
Flora's win moves them a huge step closer to their sixth Meistriliiga title but they are still only three points ahead of FC Levadia Maardu and four clear of JK Trans Narva. The table is so tight at the top that TVMK's defeat drops them to fourth place a point further adrift.

Dominant
TVMK dominated the first half with some attractive flowing football that forced Arno Pijpers, the Flora coach, to admit: "I was happy being only 2-1 down at half-time."  The top scorer in the Estonian league, Andrei Krõlov, opened the scoring in the eighth minute for TVMK when he converted Maksim Smirnov's cross. Only for Norwegian striker Tor Henning Hamre to equalise just six minutes later.

Matter of time
However, the remainder of the first half was all TVMK as Flora were cut apart. None more so than the left-back Andrei Sidorenkov, who was unable to stop Smirnov's breaks down the right wing. It was only a matter of time and Deniss Malov duly put TVMK back in front in the 36th minute before hitting the post with a fine solo effort.

Unlikely hero
Flora, however, showed the kind of spirit that won them last season's title in the second half and eventually punished TVMK for not taking their first-half chances. They found their unlikely hero in Piiroja, who headed home two almost identical goals inside three minutes that knocked the life out of TVMK. On both occasions Piiroja rose highest to head in Joel Lindpere's corner from the centre of the penalty area.

'Long way to go'
There was even time for Hamre to hit the post shortly before the final whistle. "It was an important win, but it is still a close fight for the medals and there is still long way to go," Pijpers said.

Comfortable
Maardu comfortably beat FC Levadia Tallinn 2-0 to move to second place yesterday while Narva had to fight against bottom-of-the-table FC Levadia Pärnu, but eventually ground out a 2-1 win with goals from Maksim Gruznov and Dmitri Lipartov.

Ustritski hat-trick
JK Tulevik Viljandi seemed to be in trouble at FC Lootus Kohtla-Järve when, with 58 minutes gone, they trailed 1-0 to a 23rd minute Sergei Popov goal. However, up stepped Tulevik's international striker Dmitri Ustritski, to score a wonderful hat-trick inside 23 minutes. Vjatseslav Zahovaiko added another in injury time as Tulevik eventually ran out comfortable 4-1 winners.