COACH Norman Stalker insists a full-strength Ludlow is “the best side by a long way” in Midlands Three West (North) – and wants a five-star finish to prove it.

The Linneymen crushed Telford Hornets 63-7 on Saturday to maintain a four-point lead over second-placed Cleobury Mortimer and a five-point cushion on Burntwood with five matches to play.

But Ludlow’s path to promotion still has pitfalls to avoid with clashes against their closest rivals mixed in with Saturday's trip to Uttoxeter, a derby at home to Clee Hill and an away day at Cannock.

“It is a tough run-in and if we end up top at the end of the season, we will have earned it,” admitted Stalker.

“I think we are in control, though. If we keep our discipline and everyone stays fit and available we should be confident with the way we are playing week after week.

“We want to go up as champions. It has been a great season and our focus is to finish it off by winning all of the last five, we might be sitting top but haven’t won anything yet.

“It is up to us to make that happen and that is the nice part of this situation, if we win all five we are champions no matter what.

“When we have everyone fit and available, we have the best side by a long way but with a lot of our players coming from the farming community, this is a difficult time of year.

“These guys play for fun and have jobs to do. Work commitments have to come first so like everyone else, we will have good and bad weeks.

“The difference this year is we manage to carry on winning even on the bad weeks. We have a strong enough squad to do that.”

Ben Chamberlain, Mike Jones, Sam Wilkes, Mark Williams (2), Jack Lines, Sam Thomas (2) and Jim Alderson did the damage against Telford with Will Sparrow showing deadly poise to land all nine conversions.

“Once the game opened up they were unable to control us but my goodness, Telford fought hard. They never gave up,” said Stalker.

“We were 49-0 up after about 50 minutes but they still flew back at us, scored a try and while we thought it might have been a massive scoreline, they dug in to make it tough.

“In a funny way, I think their hard work cost them because they ran out of steam in the end.”

The success, however, came at a price.

“We picked up a few knocks and have to hope they recover ahead of a hard run-in,” said Stalker. “The conditions were very heavy and we had players pulling up with cramp and other minor problems.”

One player Ludlow will have to do without at Uttoxeter is number-eight Russ Jones who is set to miss two weeks with a knee complaint.