A CUP final date and a place in next season’s FA Cup top Dave Richards’ New Year wishlist after another impressive week for his Shawbury United side.

Saturday’s comfortable 2-0 victory over Pegasus Juniors continued Shawbury’s fine recent form, moving them further away from danger after a rocky start to the West Midlands Premier season.

That win followed on from a thrilling 3-2 Shropshire Premier Cup extra-time triumph at FC Oswestry last Tuesday night that put Shawbury into that competition’s quarter-finals.

With United also still in the League Cup and Richards believing a top-10 finish – Shawbury currently sit 13th – will be good enough to secure an FA Cup berth, the boss says there is much to play for.

Richards – whose side visit bottom club Pershore this Saturday – said: “It’s been a good week with the win in midweek and then three important points to pull us further away from the bottom four or five clubs and keep our little run going.

“The Shropshire Cup final is at Shrewsbury Town’s ground which is a great incentive for the players.

“We want to put together an unbeaten run until Christmas and see what the New Year brings.

“From personal experience, I know that as a season goes on, you can get stronger and a lot of players elsewhere are showing interest in coming to Shawbury.

“That is a good sign when you have players beating on your door to come and join so in the New Year, our squad could be even stronger.

“So my aim now is to try to get into the top half and hopefully qualify for FA Cup football because that will give us the platform to keep the players we have and build again.

“I’m pretty confident with the squad we have, that we can push on for a top 6-10 place and if we can do that, it will have been an excellent season.”

Against Pegasus, Tom Horton’s first goal since his move from Newport put Shawbury ahead around the half-hour mark.

Joe Delacoe and Sean Evans were thwarted by superb saves from the Pegasus keeper, while Ben Salter made a brilliant last-ditch challenge to deny the visitors an equaliser at the other end.

That was one of very few moments of danger for United, who controlled the majority of the game and Stu Ellis came off the bench to seal the points with Shawbury’s second goal.