County football round-up

Friar Lane & Epworth 3 Bridgnorth Town 3

Bridgnorth Town shared six goals with their Leicestershire hosts in the Midland Alliance, but that didn't even tell half the story of an eventful afternoon.

The drama started on 31 minutes when Ravi Sangha gave the visitors the lead after good work by Anthony Bruce.

But the visitors' joy was short-lived when George Williams was sent-off when adjudged to be the last men when he brought down a Friar Lane striker, and Danny Hodgkinson slotted home the resulting penalty.

Jason Pike then wasted a golden opportunity to put Bridgnorth back in front when his penalty was saved following a foul on Mark Neville.

Pike recovered his composure to slot home two penalties in the first 20 minutes of the second half for a foul on Andy Penney and a blatant handball.

Danny Yearwood then struck the underside of the bar as Bridgnorth almost went 4-1 up, before Friar Lane were down to 10 men for a dangerous tackle on Yearwood.

Poor defending allowed John Chapman to reduce the deficit for the hosts, before there was late drama when Penney was sent off for a second bookable offence after a sliding tackle in the box and Danny Geary slotted home from the penalty spot on 89 minutes.

Alvechurch 0 Market Drayton 1

A first half strike from Jason Francis maintained Market Drayton's title push.

Frances popped up with 24 minutes on the clock to ensure Drayton remain 11 points clear of second placed Barwell, who have two games in hand on the leaders.

"We don't play another league game until a week on Tuesday and by then Barwell will have played their two games in hand so we will know where we are," said Drayton boss Simon Line.

"Saturday was an important win and a good, solid 1-0 victory."

Martyn Davies, Tom Ward and Duncan Horler all missed good chances. But the winner came when Tom Ward rounded the keeper and, although his shot was cleared off the line, Frances was on hand to slot home the rebound.

Ward was later taken to hospital with a badly dislocated thumb.

Shifnal Town 2 Westfields 2

Shifnal were again left to rue allowing two points to slip through their grasp after throwing away a winning position at Phoenix Park.

A fairly non-descript first half sprang to life on 36 minutes when Neil Barnfield played the ball forward for Duncan Willetts, who turned and chipped delightfully past Jon Pugh from 25 yards.

Three minutes later, Barnfield again played a through ball for Willetts, who beat Pugh to the ball before touching it for Craig Gregg to steer into the unguarded net from the edge of the penalty area.

Westfields pulled one back within two minutes of the re-start when a Leon Cook free-kick bounced over Shifnal goalkeeper Steve Jackson and into the net.

And the visitors completed the fightback when Richard Gardner was harshly penalised for handball and Mark Hibbard calmly slotted home the penalty.