CLEE Hill United’s bid to retain their Herefordshire Premier Division title received a slight boost without even playing last week – but boss Wayne Whitbread is adamant it has changed little.

While leaders United’s home game with Hinton was called off due to a waterlogged pitch, their nearest rivals Malvern Town Reserves were dropping points in a 2-2 draw with Wellington Reserves.

That kept Hill – who visit Shobdon this Saturday – top by a point from Malvern who have a game in hand but Whitbread also identified Holme Lacy, four points adrift with three games in hand, as a key threat.

He said: “While it was good for us that Malvern didn’t win, it still doesn’t change anything.

“We still have to do exactly the same regardless of what they do – and that’s win every game to have a chance.

“It hasn’t really changed my outlook on things especially with Holme Lacy looking arguably the most dangerous team behind us.”

Whitbread has reason to expect this Saturday’s game will go ahead, explaining: “We haven’t played Shobdon at all yet so we have two pitches to choose from – as the league has asked teams to switch fixtures if needed to get games played because of the backlog.”

Elsewhere in the top division, Ludlow Town Colts were also without a game at the weekend but played two days earlier, suffering a disappointing 4-2 home defeat to Shobdon on Thursday evening.

Simon Bradley and Kieron Hollis were on target for Colts, who host bottom side Bartestree this Saturday.

There was better news for Ludlow Colts Reserves, who sit third in Division One after a 2-0 win over Lads Club Reserves.

Gareth Williams’ fine finish put them ahead before a great team move involving Tom Swinbourne, Adam Dovey and Mackenzie Swift was finished off by James Byatt to seal the points.

They are just two points behind second-placed Tenbury United who, in turn, are now six points adrift of leaders Hinton Reserves after the latter’s 7-2 win over Wellington Colts.

United’s game at Hereford City was rained off as was seventh-placed Tenbury Town’s match at home to Civil Service.

Town visit Lads Club Reserves on Saturday and Leominster Town on Tuesday in a bid to start clearing a fixture pile-up which leaves them with 16 games still to play between now and the middle of May.

Boss Keiran Fish said: “I’ve seen on the league website that we’ve pretty much got all our fixtures now and it looks like we are going to be playing a lot of Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“The league want us to switch games but every time I speak to an opposition manager they are in the same boat. They are trying to get miracles from us and it’s not happening."