Evesham 10, Pershore 1

EVESHAM began the new year in emphatic style as they produced a clinical performance to completely outplay their local rivals in a friendly before this weekend's resumption of league action.

The long break was certainly evident in the first 20 minutes as Evesham played with plenty of enthusiasm but little finesse. However, despite a rather scrappy opening period, they managed to open the scoring through Chris Perry who then continued his recent scoring form with a second.

Pershore responded in determined fashion and strung together a series of good attacks before scoring from close- range after the defence seemed to stop anticipating a whistle.

Midway through the first half, Evesham began to find some form and soon began to dominate proceedings. Stuart Bearcroft skilfully scored a third before Ben Brown made it 4-1 shortly before half-time.

Evesham were determined to consolidate but were fortunate as their opponents wasted some good chances.

This proved costly as their heads went down and Evesham took full advantage.

Perry completed his hat-trick, before Brown scored his second and James Newman opened his account for the club with a deflected shot that gave the gallant Pershore keeper no chance.

Evesham now produced some outstanding passing moves that created a wealth of chances. Seb Seneque proved deadly from short corners with two outstanding strikes before man of the match Bearcroft scored the goal of the game with a fierce strike into the roof of the net from the edge of the area.

The winners resume their league campaign at Bromsgrove on Saturday.

Latest league standings

West Midlands Division One

P W D L F A Pts

Stone 11 11 0 0 59 20 33

Bromsgrove 11 6 2 3 31 37 20

Evesham 11 6 1 4 45 27 19

Leamington 11 5 3 3 27 23 18

Redditch 11 4 5 2 25 18 17

Walsall 11 4 3 4 27 31 15

Droitwich 11 3 4 4 34 29 13

Rugeley 11 3 4 4 21 30 13

Yardley 11 3 3 5 24 28 12

Barlaston 11 3 2 6 24 33 11

Stafford 11 1 4 6 18 32 7

Kynoch 11 0 3 8 17 44 3

Division Two

P W D L F A Pts

Whitchurch 9 9 0 0 45 9 27

Market Drayton 9 7 1 1 29 9 22

West Bromwich 9 5 3 1 38 18 18

Pershore 9 5 1 3 41 19 16

Ludlow 9 4 2 3 26 17 14

Oswestry 8 4 0 4 18 30 12

Newtown 9 3 1 5 19 28 10

Chad Corbett 9 1 0 8 21 43 3

Atherstone Adders* 9 1 0 8 8 31 0

Aston University* 8 1 0 7 12 53 0