Corinthians’ march towards the top of the Canada Life Premier League continued on Saturday as Ben Qualtrough’s side beat Union Mills to leapfrog them into second.

With the cold weather leading to postponements across the island, Ballafletcher saw the only two games played in the top flight, with Douglas Royals losing to Marown on the adjacent pitch (see report on opposite page).

Corinthians started the brighter against Mills, with Jay Chatwood having the first chance only to see his shot expertly turned away by Mason Prince.

Prince couldn’t keep Chatwood out for long though as Corinthians built from the back and their big striker played a one-two with Ryan Gartland to finish off what was a brilliant team move that played through Mills.

Before long it was 2-0 as Chatwood was picked out at the back post by Gartland and seemingly had all the time in the world to tap home, despite Prince’s best efforts.

Gartland was at the centre of things again shortly after as the ball fell to him from a half-cleared corner. He faked a cross before trying to sneak an attempt into the near post, only to see it cannon back off the post.

Having taken a little bit of time to find their feet, Mills’ first chance came as Tyler Hughes was played in with a dink over the Whites’ backline, but his attempt was bravely blocked by Jack Corran in the Corinthians goal received got a kicking for his troubles.

Mills didn’t have to wait long to find a way through though as Corinthians failed to clear a corner, Luke Booth found himself with space in the area and fired home to drag the Millers back into it.

But in a moment for fans of footballing cliches, a team is most vulnerable just after scoring and so it proved for Millers as Chatwood played through Joe Middleton who restored Corinthians’ two-goal lead.

As a man who had been a shoo-in for another Team of the Week appearance in the early stages of the game, Gartland was at the centre of events again an awful challenge on Booth then left referee Daniel Kelly with little choice but to send him off.

Millers tried to take advantage of having an extra man but a good stop from Corran and a wasteful attempt from Booth ensured Corinthians led 3-1 at half-time.

As the temperature somehow managed to drop further, Mills couldn’t find a way past the Corinthians back line as Stewart Smith marshalled his defence and Corran made a couple of smart saves.

It seemed inevitable that there would be another goal and so it came, but slightly against the run of play it was for the home side.

Danny Gerrard lifted a ball over the Millers’ back four and, when Chatwood beat Prince to the ball, he had little to do but fire home, completing his hat-trick.

As Corinthians sat back, Mills found themselves reduced to long-range efforts which did little to trouble Corran and, when Gerrard broke free and made it 5-1 to the home side, it looked like game over.

But when Jordan Crawley scored the goal of the game from the edge of the D and Corinthians got lucky with a deflection off Smith over the bar, Mills suddenly looked like they were back in it.

The Millers took another big step towards getting something out of the match when Smith was deemed to have used his hand and Booth scored the resulting penalty - suddenly there was hope that they had time to get at least a point.

But it wasn’t to be and, as the pitch started to freeze over, Mills simply ran out of time.

With three of the four Railway Cup positions locked in, there will now be an inevitable delay to the annual Boxing Day clash.

But looking beyond that, with Corinthians still the only unbeaten side in men’s football and with games in hand on the team around them, the title race between them and Peel is very much on.