THE LEINSTER League first division table makes pleasant reading for Loreto coach Noel Keogh after Saturday's victory over Old Alexandra at Whitechurch Park maintained his team's perfect start to the season.

Played seven, won seven, scored 7 and conceded just one is the leaders' impressive record to date. "Yeah, that can't be bad," said Keogh who is refusing to get over excited about his charges title prospects this season. "It's still all to play for though it's a long season and we're not half way through it yet."

Loreto's top scorer in the new campaign, the long-serving Mary Barnwell, is also refusing to get too carried away with the team's success and recognises that there's a lot of work to be done between now and March before they can get their hands on some silverware.

"We felt last year that we were good enough to win something so this year we've decided we have to go out and prove it to ourselves, as well as everybody else," said Barnwell.

It was a Dearbhla O'Carroll goal from a well-worked first half penalty corner that gave Loreto the three points on Saturday in a match that saw the two sides effectively cancel each other for long periods.

Old Alexandra rallied in the second half and put the visitors under intense pressure with six short corners but they were unable to convert any, a failing that disappointed their coach Simon Filgas.

While there was a degree of dejection in the Old Alexandra camp after they had lost their unbeaten record, Filgas believes the best is yet to come from his team. I think we're still learning. We're a hit younger than Loreto and a lot of our players are new to first-team hockey so I think we'll have improved by the time we play them and Muckross again."