AALBORG, DENMARK - A season record crowd of 12,108 spectators at Energi Nord Arena watched Aalborg BK beat Aarhus GF 3-1 for a club record-tying eighth consecutive home win in their gold chase on Thursday evening.

As usual, Danny Califf wore the captain's armband in Aalborg's defense for the full 90 minutes and nearly gave his team the lead in the first half.

Back from injury with a vengeance, Jeremiah White actually did give AGF the lead as he replaced injured captain Peter Graulund up front before being moved to his usual right midfield position late in the second.

A generally poor first half was played mostly in the visitors' half, but while Aalborg had the vast majority of possession, they could not establish any sort of dominance in terms of creating chances and shooting stats were fairly even.

White took a shot for from outside the area after seven minutes, and four minutes later, it was Jeppe Curth who tried his luck at the other end, but each fired well over the crossbar.

After 13 minutes, Andreas Johansson set up Kasper Risgård for the home side, but his qualified shot was saved by Steffen Rasmussen and pounced on before Curth could get to the rebound.

Six minutes later, White found Jens Gjesing in the middle, but his long distance shot went wide of the post.

Aalborg's biggest chance of the first half fell after 21 minutes when a free kick from Johansson found Califf's head, but his effort went narrowly wide.

"I think I need to spend a little more time after training working on dead balls," Califf laughed. "I was climbing the ladder and I just tried to reach my head over the top of the other guy's head."

"To tell you the truth, I was glad that I just got a head on it; I wasn't in a position where I was able to direct the ball."

White put out a warning in the 35th minute when he was on his way to outrun the defense, but in the end, was outmuscled by Olfers and the chance came to nothing.

Two minutes later, however, Jerry Lucena rose above the defense to connect with a long ball forward and send White through on goal. This time, the American calmly put it past Kenneth Stenild for the opening goal.

"I dropped off and Steve (Olfers) stayed up, and the outside midfielder got behind him and got his chest to the ball, and then Jerry came from behind," Califf explained after the game. "It was a great touch by him and a great finish."

"It was okay, but we didn't get the result," a disappointed White later told American Soccer Daily. "You always feel better when you score and you win."

Jesper Blicher almost made it two a minute later when he intercepted a poor pass from Johansson and raided up the middle, but his finish from the edge went wide.

Williams came close in the 42nd when he seemingly committed a free kick against Olfers, but his shot on the turn was deflected for a corner.

AaB tried to bite back but Lasse Nilsson's header from Johansson's 44th minute cross hit the side netting.

The turning point of the game came in injury time of the first half. Williams could not stop his run and crashed into Stenild. On a seemingly harsh call, referee Lars Christoffersen pulled out Williams' second yellow card and the Liberian headed for an early shower.

"He gives the yellow for the first one, and then he's in a bad spot and he has to give the yellow on the second one," Califf said. "If you looked at the game, I think there was probably five or six fouls and he has three or four of them."

The man advantage showed from the beginning of the second half. With Williams out of the game, White was alone in front and could do little against Califf and Olfers, and AGF barely had a shot towards goal in the second.

"I was all alone with five guys," White said. "So unless you're Ronaldo, it's not easy."

Only a minute into the half, Michael Jakobsen sent in a cross from the left and Nilsson nodded it on for Curth, who found the space between Steffen Rasmussen's legs for the equalizer.

Enevoldsen sent in a square ball from the right in the very next minute, but Nilsson was left needing an extra inch to connect in front of goal.

Twenty minutes in, however, Johansson found Jakobsen on the left and his square ball went through to Curth, who made light work of the tap-in.

Only three minutes later, Curth broke through the defense and was brought down in the area by Anders Kure, but Christoffersen's whistle remained silent.

With 14 minutes left on the clock, however, it was Risgård's long pass forward that found Thomas Enevoldsen, who tapped it past Rasmussen to secure the win.

"We came out and we played really tentatively - not to lose again," Califf told ASD. "Erik (Hamrén, AaB coach) gave us a few choice words at halftime and lit a fire under our ass. I think we came out with a different mentality and a different intensity in the game,"

"The red card made a huge difference," White told ASD after the game. "I think Aalborg is a very good team also, but I think the red card maybe cost us a point."

In spite of the loss, Aarhus seems to be home safe in terms of avoiding relegation. Their lead on the relegation line now stands at eight points with four games left to play, but White is not looking towards next season just yet.

"No, we have to try and win a game before the end of the season," he insisted. "We're not here just to focus on the next season right now. We have games to play."

With four games left, Aalborg need just four points to clinch the title and Califf has the recipe.

"We're going to go to Copenhagen and get three points, and then we're going to Lyngby or come back home and take three points off Brøndby," declared the soon-to-depart skipper.

Aarhus GF host Brøndby on Sunday evening, while Aalborg travel to Parken to face defending champs FC Copenhagen on Monday evening.

ASD's Three Stars
#1 Jeppe Curth
#2 Michael Jakobsen
#3 Andreas Johansson

Scoring
AGF - Jeremiah White 3 (Jerry Lucena) 38'
AAB - Jeppe Curth 14 (Lasse Nilsson) 47'
AAB - Jeppe Curth 15 (Michael Jakobsen) 66'
AAB - Thomas Enevoldsen 3 (Kasper Risgård) 76'

Line-ups
AAB - Kenneth Stenild; Michael Jakobsen, Danny Califf, Steve Olfers, Andreas Johansson, Thomas Augustinussen, Lasse Nilsson (Simon Bræmer 68'), Jeppe Curth (Jon Roi Jacobsen 87'), Allan Olesen, Kasper Risgård, Thomas Enevoldsen (Benedict Vilakazi 77')

AGF - Steffen Rasmussen; Frederik Krabbe, Ole Budtz, Kari Árnason (Niels Kristensen 90'), Svenne Poulsen, Jesper Blicher, Jeremiah White, Jens Gjesing (Peter Foldgast 78'), Jerry Lucena, Anders Kure, Michael Lumb