Ludlow 1, Pershore 2

PERSHORE rode their luck on Saturday to claim all three points in a Coaching Solutions West Midlands match that defined the phrase "winning ugly".

More than once, they were inde-bted to man of the match Russell Scudamore who turned out with an injured hand.

An improvised back four, rear-ranged through unavailability, never looked under threat in the first half but at the other end, veteran Toby Whiting, playing as a stand-in centre forward was clearly struggling for pace.

Even so he was first on the sco-resheet with a tap-in after Anth-ony Handley's pace on the right wing had torn a hole in the Lud-low defence.

Garth Rushton, Neil Gabriel and Vincent Crawley all then saw efforts saved by the brilliance of the Ludlow goalkeeper.

After the break Pershore endured a disastrous ten minutes when they conceded a breakaway goal then allowed Ludlow to swamp the D and only the diving Scud-amore stopped the ball as it was crossing the line. Unfortunately his second attempt to clear was judged as a foul and Pershore conceded a penalty flick. Stuart White, though, saved the day with a comfortable save to keep the scores level.

Relieved at this let-off, Per-shore's play again clicked into place and they dominated the remainder of the game. Andy Tayler's distribution, backed by James Hughes's clever runs, gave Gabriel two more good chances but without success.

However, the game was won by the excellent Scudamore who slammed in a short corner.

Division Two

P W L D F A Pts

Berks & Balsall 13 10 1 2 63 22 31

Newtown 13 10 1 2 51 16 31

Kingswinford 13 10 0 3 66 20 30

Pershore 14 9 3 2 57 18 30

Barlaston 13 9 1 3 42 23 28

Kynoch* 13 9 0 4 34 40 24

Ludlow 14 5 0 9 37 47 15

Chad Corbett 14 4 1 9 27 54 13

Atherstone Adds 13 3 1 9 19 33 10

Standard 13 1 3 9 15 42 6

Malvern* 12 3 0 9 20 56 6

Aston Univ* 13 0 1 12 10 70 -2