Pershore Tn 2, Handrahan Timbers 1

A GOAL two minutes from time settled Saturday's dull affair as both sides play out the Midland Combination Premier Division season.

Amazingly, third-placed Town have just two league games left to play while Alvechurch, down in eighth place and 20 points adrift of Colin Shepherd's side, had 13 games still to play after last weekend's matches.

Pershore, then, seem set to lose third spot with a clutch of teams handily placed to overhaul them but Saturday's late winner from Chris Jew earned the hosts three welcome points.

Town dominated the opening period against their lowly opponents but Gary Smith wasted an early chance to settle the nerves.

Ian Stewart was then denied by a fine diving stop before Jew's precision pass allowed Garry Crewe to finally break the deadlock.

Handrahan's best chance saw an overhead kick from Huw Lewis flash past Neil Turner's right hand upright before Lewis beat Turner with a beauty from 25 yards.

Simon Brain's speculative shot was the closest either side came to adding to the scoresheet until youngster David Radford's badly sliced shot was retrieved by Tim Concan-non close to the corner flag.

The ball eventually reached Colin Fulloway whose shot was spilled by the goalkeeper and Jew was on hand to slot in the winner.

Midland Combination

Premier Division (top)

P W D L F A Pts

Studley 35 26 5 4 82 28 83

Nun Griff 34 25 4 5 78 32 79

Pershore 38 20 8 10 78 61 68

Romulus 32 20 7 5 60 30 67

Cov Sphinx 31 18 3 10 55 29 57

Meir 30 17 5 8 55 33 56

Marconi 31 17 4 10 70 53 55

Alvechurch 27 15 3 9 57 45 48

Dr Martens League

Western Division

P W D L F A Pts

Hinckley 41 29 8 4 97 36 95

Tiverton 40 27 6 7 94 36 87

Bilston 41 26 9 6 86 48 87

Evesham 41 26 5 10 84 47 83

Mangotsfield 41 24 9 8 90 42 81

Solihull 40 21 11 8 67 42 74

Redditch 40 17 12 11 74 65 63

Rocester 41 18 5 18 56 75 59

Weston 40 16 9 15 62 55 57

Atherstone 40 15 10 15 61 57 55

Cirencester 40 13 15 12 61 71 54

Gloucester 40 12 11 17 74 79 47

Blakenall* 41 13 10 18 54 61 46

Rugby 40 12 10 18 48 64 46

RC Warwick 40 13 6 21 43 72 45

Bedworth 41 12 9 20 38 58 45

Shepshed 40 11 9 20 52 71 42

Cinderford 40 10 8 22 53 79 38

Gresley 41 10 8 23 42 65 38

Sutton 40 7 13 20 44 64 34

Bromsgrove 40 7 9 24 45 88 30

Paget 40 7 4 29 37 91 25

*Points deducted.