Craven Arms 3 Oakengates 2

CRAVEN Arms were worthy winners of this interesting Shropshire County Premier League clash, an important victory that saw them leap-frog their visitors and move up to a mid-table position.

The visitors were slow to settle and Craven Arms dominated the first quarter to open up a two-goal lead.

Danny Crowther opened the scoring in the 17th minute when he met Neil Apperley's right-wing cross at the far post and beat the Oakengates goalkeeper with a looping header back across the goalmouth.

Apperley extended the home lead a couple of minutes later with a superbly flighted 30-yard free-kick from the left, his right-footed strike curling over the wall and the diving goalkeeper to find the top corner.

Promising

Oakengates lifted their game and started to put together a few promising moves. They were kept out by a well-organised home defence, but their persistence was rewarded just before the break with a somewhat fortuitous goal.

A speculative long-range shot was mis-judged by goalkeeper Simon Watkins in the strong, low sunlight, the ball swirling over his head to dip just under the bar.

The play was very even for the third quarter with both sides creating half-chances but unable to find the decisive, telling final pass.

Craven Arms made the breakthrough when Stuart Owens rose to send a powerful header in off the under-side of the bar from an Apperley left-wing corner.

With a two-goal cushion Craven Arms sat back, but with two minutes to go Oakengates made a fine break down the right to reduce the gap to a single goal. The Arms did not panic and in the dying seconds defender Lee Smith went up for a corner and thought he had scored only to be denied by the referee's final whistle.