Joe Mason continued his fine goalscoring form on Saturday night as his first half finish proved enough for all three points as Cavalry FC took down Valour FC 1-0 at IG Field.

The hosts made four changes from the team that lost to Pacific 3-2 last weekend with Sean Rea, William Akio, Stefan Cebara and Moses Dyer making way for Daryl Fordyce, Kevin Aleman, Rodrigo Reyes and Andy Baquero.

Cavalry rotated even more than Valour having played just three days ago away to FC Edmonton — a 1-0 win where Anthony Novak provided the lone goal of the game. Novak was one of five players to drop out of the XI that beat the Eddies alongside Ahinga Selemani, Jose Hernandez, Richard Da Silva and Joe Di Chiara. Joe Mason, Ben Fisk, Daan Klomp, Nik Ledgerwood and Sergio Camargo all came into the team to start for Tommy Wheeldon Jr on Saturday.

The story of the opening 45′ was initially about the back and forth nature of the play with both teams showing careless moments of possession and allowing the opposition to counter on several occasions. If not for the strong hands of Marco Carducci, Aleman would have put the hosts up 1-0 as he found himself in behind the Cavalry backline only to be denied by Carducci.

A misread by Tony Mikhael in his own area 10 minutes later left perhaps the worst person from a Valour perspective with acres of space in the box as Mason made no mistake in depositing at the backpost 32 minutes in to give Cavalry a 1-0 lead.

Before the break, an astounding nine cautions were handed out between the two teams including four simultaneously in the 37th minute as Rafael Galhardo looked to take exception to a dangerous challenge from Mason Trafford at the halfway line.

Emotions in the final 45′ would become more even-tempered but from the halftime interval to the final whistle, Valour would push for an equalizer as head coach Rob Gale used all five substitutions available to him to try and salvage a draw but in the end couldn’t solve Carducci and Co.

Cavalry enjoyed more of the ball in the second half despite Valour changing shape at the half to send more bodies forward and showed a real willingness to win the ball back when pressing in high areas of the pitch.

Things went from bad to worse for Valour when Rocco Romeo saw red in the dying seconds, leaving a massive hole in their backline for the immediate future.

The Cavs temporarily go top of the table with 31 points as they await the result of Pacific and FC Edmonton later tonight while the pressure on Valour in the fourth and final playoff spot grows with another game failing to pick up points.

BOX SCORE

Goals

32′ — Joe Mason (Cavalry FC)

Discipline

22′ — Yellow: Sergio Camargo (Cavalry FC)

30′ — Yellow: Karifa Yao (Cavalry FC)

37′ — Yellow: Austin Ricci (Valour FC)

37′ — Yellow: Rafael Galhardo (Valour FC)

37′ — Yellow: Mo Farsi (Cavalry FC)

37′ — Yellow: Mason Trafford (Cavalry FC)

41′ — Yellow: Nik Ledgerwood (Cavalry FC)

44′ — Yellow: Tony Mikhael (Valour FC)

45+2′ — Yellow: Raphael Ohin (Valour FC)

52′ — Yellow: Ben Fisk (Cavalry FC)

90′ — Yellow: Andy Baquero (Valour FC)

90+7′ — Yellow: Anthony Novak (Cavalry FC)

90+8′ — Red: Rocco Romeo (Valour FC)