Top 10 underlines potential

One of Shifnal Town's biggest victories in years has underlined the club's potential to be crowned West Midlands League premier division champions this season.

That's the view of manager Mick Tranter after watching his side thump Ledbury Town 10-0 at Phoenix Park on Saturday.

Any thoughts of a costly mid-season slump following last week's reverse at Wellington were quickly banished by the goal feast which saw Carl Tranter add five to his season's tally, Linden Dovey netted four and Phil Bates completed the scoring.

"I have been involved in nine and 10 goal victories and even a 13 once but this was important because it was a big bounce back after Wellington," said Tranter."We have been threatening to do this for a while and even at Wellington we hit the post and put six or seven really good chances just wide.

"Ledbury had been improving recently so they weren't expecting that and I'm not sure we were.

"What it has done is shown that we can stake our claim this season and we are in with a chance.

"Obviously Bewdley can go three points clear if they win all of their five games in hand but there is a lot of pressure on them to do that and it will increase if they lose one."

Shawbury United have been rocked by the loss of two of their promising youngsters, left midfielder Stuart Ellis and defender Mark Stallard.

The duo departed shortly before Saturday's goalless draw with Lye to leave manager Delwyn Humphreys bemused.

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"I'm disappointed about what happened because I was told about it at 12 noon on Saturday and they would both have been in the team," he said.

"I should have had 20 players turn up and I ended up having to put myself on the bench.

"They've said they are not enjoying their football but I would have thought young lads would have wanted to play at the highest level possible."

The departures could spark Humphreys into some transfer activity.

"I said when I came in that I would give everyone a chance but I feel we are at the stage where we need to get as many points on the board as possible," he added.

"I'm looking to bring in three or four players and I will be speaking to some lads this week.

"If you look at the league table, you would say we were still in danger of being in a relegation battle.

"I look at the players at Shawbury and think we are too good to go down.

"But that's an old cliche and a lot of people have fallen flat on their faces saying that.

"We want to turn in a few performances to guarantee our safety so we can start looking to next season."