'Five minutes of madness' costs Tenbury United

Bottom side Town suffered their 12th defeat in 13 games as they lost 4-0 at home to Westfields Reserves and they face an uphill task to avoid relegation.

Tenth-placed United, meanwhile, stretched their unbeaten run to four games with a 2-2 draw at Fownhope in a match that joint manager Aaron Morris felt they should have won twice over.

Tenbury let a two-goal lead slip in the second half but Morris said: “We should have been out of sight – we missed chance after chance, even after they equalised.

“It was a combination of us missing chances and their goalkeeper making some great saves.

“Before the game, we would have taken a point but the performance the lads put in merited all three and that’s been the story of our season.

“The derby is a fixture we always look forward to. We are unbeaten in four now – hopefully that will be unbeaten in five come the weekend and we can then build on that.”

Ryan Morris put United ahead with the last kick of the first half and a thunderbolt free-kick from Toby Gittings made it 2-0 after the break.

However, what the assistant boss termed ‘five minutes of madness’ cost United as Fownhope pulled one back, despite a superb initial save from George Pearson, and then levelled soon after.

Town assistant manager Dean Morris, meanwhile, knows his side needs to start picking up victories quickly if they are to avoid the drop.

He said: “Obviously there’s a lot of banter with the derby games as we all know each other. We are not expected to win but we will give it a go.”

At the other end of the table, Joshua Carpenter hit a hat-trick to give title-hunting Clee Hill United a 5-1 win at Hinton. James Clifford also bagged a brace.

In Division One, third-placed Orleton boosted their promotion hopes with a 4-1 win at Belmont Wanderers as Chris Breakwell (2), Connor Davies-Austin and Jake Conod struck.

But Orleton Reserves lost 3-2 at home to Civil Service in Division Two.