Chaddesley Corbett 2,

Pershore 4

ONLY excellent defending from Wright, Rushin, and Powell kept Saturday's hosts at bay early on but it was Pershore who opened the scoring after a mistake led to Rich-ard Lisle continuing his excellent form in front of goal with a swift strike.

Several short corners came to nothing thanks to fine stops from Chris Gra-ham who was eventually beaten when a shot sneaked into the corner of the goal.

Pershore regained the lead after a nicely worked short corner involving Rob Curley, Andy Tayler and Garth Rushton saw the latter netting at the near post.

Graham then made a superb save from a penalty flick to ensure the visiting side led at the break after which Pershore produced their best play of the match as Vincent Crowley and Mark Passmore fed Anthony Hanley down the right wing.

The latter's cut back led to Lisle scoring again with typical flair and the striker then completed his hat-trick with a fifth goal in the past two outings.

Chaddesley grab a late second but a reorganised Pershore side managed to force a positive result and stay within four points of top spot in a crowded and competitive Coaching Solutions League.

The second team's promotion push took a major blow on Saturday after a 3-1 defeat against rivals Market Drayton.

Fielding a relatively inexperienced side after a number of late changes, their opponents dominated the early exchanges.

As the half wore on, Pershore started to launch Martin Thomas on a number of dangerous runs down the wing and he became a constant threat to the Drayton defence.

The deadlock was broken in unlikely fashion when the Pershore goalkeeper becoming entangled with his own defender who deflected a weakly stuck shot into his own goal.

Pershore responded well and Rob Smith squeezed the ball home after an excellent short corner routine.

The Vale side started the second half the stronger side with excellent prompting from Simon Ball in midfield but several chances went begging.

Two late goals added to the frustration as their opponents snatched the points as the home team tired.

An excellent third team match against Walsall was lacking just one ingredient - goals!

The game started at a frantic pace with Walsall slightly the stronger but the pressure was soaked up as the experienced back four stood firm.

After the first 20 minutes the Pershore midfield sprung into action and started to link up with the excellent Mike Andrews who was always available.

Excellent work from Gavin Pugh and James Barker created Pershore's first short corner and, despite the shot going narrowly wide, this looked like their best chance of finding the net.

The game ebbed and flowed after the interval when both teams created minor chances with Luke Dalley's strike inches wide.

At the other end, Lee Wickersham made a number of excellent saves to deny Walsall a late winner.