SHIPSTON were hoping to earn themselves a place in the Cotswold League play-offs this week but had to endure two close and well-fought matches.

They overcame Willersey 2-1 with a pair of well-taken goals from John Burt.

Harry Foxall pulled one back for gutsy Willersey whose goalkeeper Will Lucas had a superb game making many top-class saves.

St James' had also found Shipston a hard team to beat. Sam Thomas somehow kept his goal intact only for Harry Barn-ard to smash the ball into the Saints' net a minute later. Unfo-rtunately, a teammate had fouled a second earlier so the game remained scoreless.

It was Nick Walker who broke the deadlock with only a few minutes to go to put St James' ahead before further goals from Ben Hayes and Sam Nicholls put the result beyond doubt.

Pushing

Shipston kept on pushing and finally got the goal they des-erved courtesy of Harry Barn-ard.

The win puts the Saints into the play-offs despite still having a match to play.

St Mary's will join them if they can defeat St James' in a rearranged contest.

Ilmington and Temple Guiting played an entertaining A Divi-sion match last Thursday.

Both schools did really well to get a competitive team together and it was Ned Plackett who put Ilmington on the way to three welcome points in the early stages.

Will Twiston-Davies then fired in one of his trademark free hits to bring a superb save from the Ilmington goalkeeper but Dan Moore tucked away the rebound.

Both sides had their chances before Charlie Pinfold restored Ilmington's lead.

Yet again Guiting equalised through Twiston-Davies and, at this stage, either side promised to score the clincher.

However, it was Scott Hard-iman who managed to sneak the ball into the net for Ilmington but only after the final whistle had been blown.

Guiting were pleased with their well-deserved first point from their six-match campaign, but their opponents were in miserable mood after failing to book a play-off place.

Next Tuesday's action at Chipping Campden will see some tidying up in the D Division when Ilmington B, Swell, and Willersey B are on court.

The final A Division match of the season between Ilmington A and Stow is also scheduled.

The C Division is the only one in which play-off places are unclear with February 21 decision day.

A Division

P W D L F A Pts

CCS 6 4 2 0 28 8 14

Dormer House 6 4 2 0 24 11 14

St Catharine's 6 4 1 1 17 17 13

Blockley 6 2 0 4 12 22 6

Stow 5 1 1 3 10 14 4

Ilmington 5 1 1 3 9 13 4

Tem Guiting 6 0 1 5 10 25 1

B Division

P W D L F A Pts

CCS 6 6 0 0 36 4 18

St James' 5 4 0 1 15 12 12

Shipston 6 3 1 2 15 11 10

St Mary's 5 2 2 1 8 9 8

Willersey 6 1 2 3 8 10 5

Mickleton 6 1 1 4 12 18 4

Longborough 6 0 0 6 0 30 0

C Division

P W D L F A Pts

CCS 4 3 1 0 13 4 10

Quinton 5 3 0 2 14 7 9

Tredington 4 2 1 1 6 6 7

St David's 4 2 0 2 8 10 6

Bledington 2 1 0 1 4 5 3

Bredon Hill 5 0 0 5 5 18 0

D Division

P W D L F A Pts

CCS 5 5 0 0 31 1 15

Tem Guiting B 5 3 1 1 4 4 10

Bredon Hill B 5 1 1 3 4 8 4

Willersey B 4 1 1 2 2 10 4

Swell 4 1 0 3 2 11 3

Ilmington B 3 0 1 2 1 10 1