Pershore 18pts, Old Coventrians 19

PERSHORE'S run of defeats continued in Saturday's dour match against a side they comprehensively defeated at the start of the season.

The Piddle Parkers have got themselves in a rut and, when you are having a run of defeats, albeit mostly narrow ones, everything tends to go wrong.

A sliced kick, the ball bounces in the wrong direction, a 50-50 decision going to the opposition - but a lot of the problems are self-inflicted. The forwards win a glut of ball most weeks but the team doesn't know what to do with it!

The first half saw Pershore play an expansive game that brought dividends and a 15-0 half-time lead. However, they withdrew into their shell after the break when Covs took the initiative.

The home side started in control as a succession of rucks and driving forwards play meant they played most of the first half in the opposition 22.

The first score came when a double miss in the centre enabled winger Matt Harwood to hit the ball at pace, round his winger and touch down.

More keep ball in the forwards put Pershore in a great attacking position and once again a move in the backs released centre Ben Pullen who crashed over for Harwood to convert.

With the lion's share of possession, Pershore created three clear-cut opportunities to score, but again wrong decisions were made and the final score of the half was a Harwood penalty.

Old Covs controlled the second half forcing their opponents to play a game that they weren't able to adapt to.

The visitors crossed for a couple of swift tries to trim Persh-ore's lead to one point.

Five minutes from time, Har-wood kicked another penalty to increase his side's advantage but, with time running out, ridiculous decision making from and poor touch kicking gifted the ball to Coventrians whose winger gleefully scored in the corner to seal a remarkable win.

Midlands Three West (South)

P W L D F A Pts

Solihull 14 13 0 1 413 124 26

Silhillians 15 13 0 2 440 182 26

Hereford 15 11 0 4 488 186 22

Stratford 15 11 0 4 364 180 22

Bedworth* 15 10 0 5 286 242 16

Nuneaton OEs 14 7 0 7 303 242 14

Earlsdon 15 7 0 8 244 314 14

Pershore* 15 5 0 10 286 296 8

Old Coventrians 15 4 0 11 212 356 8

Old Leams 15 3 0 12 200 446 6

Ledbury* 14 4 0 10 170 475 6

Keresley* 14 0 0 14 97 460 -2

*Points deducted.