Bridgnorth Town’s Midland Alliance struggles continued as they slipped to a demoralising 6-1 defeat at Alvechurch.

It had all started so well for the men from Crown Meadow, who took the lead after just three minutes when Jason Pike converted a penalty after Gareth Horler had been brought down by goalkeeper Dan Kimberley.

But the turning point came on 20 minutes when defender George Williams was carried off with an ankle injury and striker Darren Leonard had to drop back to plug the gap.

Martin Crawford levelled with a header eight minutes later that gave stand-in goalkeeper and manager Andy Marlowe no chance, and the hosts were in front before half-time when Brendan Kelly’s 30-yard free-kick bounced in.

Alvechurch went on to dominate the second half, Crawford adding the third. The home side then won two penalties, Naveed Arshad converting the first and Crawford the second to complete his hat-trick.

Substitute Gareth Davies made it six in the dying minutes of the game, while Leonard was unfortunate to see his 15-yard strike tipped over in stoppage time.

Shifnal Town suffered their fifth defeat in six league outings as they went down 1-0 at home to Tipton.

Promotion-chasing Tipton had won two and drawn one of their previous three away games, but were pushed all the way by a dogged and resilient Shifnal performance.

The only goal of the game finally came in the 72nd minute, Nathan Jones breaking the resistence of the Phoenix Park men.

By CHRIS HUDSON