Shropshire Star

Super Shrewsbury home in on table-toppers

Shrewsbury maintained their perfect home record to move within striking distance of the West Midlands One leaders.

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A hard-fought single-goal success over Pershore left Shrewsbury fifth in the table, but just three points behind table-topping Wolverhampton.

Shrews travel to face a Stafford side sitting one place above them on Saturday in their final outing of the year.

And they will head there in confident mood on the back of last weekend’s victory which made it five wins on the spin.

The game followed a typical pattern with Shrewsbury starting well, putting Pershore under early pressure and forcing a series of penalty corners.

Charles Evans saw one effort hit the post before Simon Taylor managed to convert Shrewsbury’s fourth penalty corner, smashing in a rebound from a tight angle.

Pershore upped their game after the break but some impressive work from keeper Nick Taylor and some sturdy defending, which included a couple of goalline clearances, kept the visitors at bay.

Shrewsbury closed out the final quarter confidently and will be keen to set themselves up for a shot at glory in the new year by grabbing a positive result at Stafford.

Ludlow maintained their promotion push with an impressive 5-2 success against visiting Khalsa Leamington.

The home side started well and went on to dominate the first half as they established a 3-0 lead.

Both sides struck twice after the interval to round off an entertaining clash.

Jack Pritchard marked his promotion from the second team by scoring twice for Ludlow, with Andy Richards, Stu Richards and Tom Blount joining him on the scoresheet.

The victory leaves third-placed Ludlow two points behind leaders Wolverhampton and level on points with second-placed Old Halesonians, who they face away on Saturday.

Market Drayton’s scheduled West Midlands Premier clash at home to Redditch was postponed due to a frozen pitch.

Drayton are away to Sutton Coldfield on Saturday.