STRATFORD men took their incredible away record to five wins out of five with a 2-1 victory at Streetly on Saturday.

The top two sides in the league locked horns and Stratford - though confident - were ready for a tough game.

Stratford were under pressure in the opening minutes, as the opposition were quick to take to the challenge at the start. And after a matter of minutes, the home side were 1-0 ahead. It wasn't long, though, before Stratford began to apply the pressure themselves.

Ed Simpson and Mark Leary started the game well in attack, offering options to the midfield and linking with Mark Reynolds and Theo Gibson in the wide wing back positions.

Ed Grigg and Stuart Guise also played well offering creativity and building on the support role played by Russell Lines.

The two centre backs, Steve Gray and David Fitzpatrick, found themselves having to concentrate in the early stages, as the number of opposition forwards and midfielders overwhelmed the Stratford defence.

There were several short corners to deal with in the match, but the Stratford runners easily subdued the opposition's efforts.

After a couple of scares, Gray and Fitzpatrick reasserted their influence and limited the opposition to very few chances, keeping Mark Dudley in the Stratford goal largely untroubled.

The breakthrough came as another move asked questions of the Streetly defence. Simpson picked up a pass, and beat one defender before coming face-to-face with the goalkeeper, only to have his stick hacked by another defender.

This resulted in a penalty flick, converted by Leary, taking his goal tally for the season to five. It was the least Stratford deserved, and though they were satisfied with the 1-1 half-time score, they knew they needed to increase their effort to secure three points.

Stratford rose to the challenge with Grigg and Guise continuing to give structure to the team's advances.

A second Stratford goal arrived, the finish applied by striker and leading Stratford scorer Dave Black, his sixth in six matches.

Notably, Stratford are still only averaging one goal conceded per game, and this record continues thanks to a good save late in the match by Dudley, who managed to stay alert even though he had little to do for most of the game.

Captain Guise commented: "After a series of important fixtures against fellow title challengers, we can now be content with our significant lead at the top of the league

"The team is functioning very well, attacking and defending as a unit. Our next three games are against the bottom three sides, and it is vital we take full advantage of our strengths and don't relax and lose concentration."

The next game is on Saturday at the Community Sports Centre against Kingswinford, starting at 2pm.