Tipton St. John 0, Sidbury United 1 A first half goal from Ash Small was enough to settle a closely-contested derby encounter and edge United to within touching distance of a place in the Premier Division of the Fresha League, writes Steve Birley.

It was not the best of performances from Jeremy Schofield’s high-fliers. The manager himself accepted that fact when he said: “I guess it is the old adage of results being so much better than the performance at this, the business end of the campaign. We are closing in on a glorious end to a season and achieving something we set out last August to try and make happen. I totally get the fact that the players will be nervous now and against a battling Tipton side, who in my opinion can feel aggrieved that they got nothing for their contribution to the game, we were below-par. However, if we are below-par in out last three games, but get the job done, then you’ll not get many complaints from me!”

The win over Tipton came four days after a 5-2 Byes Lane success over Exmouth Amateurs with Adam Connett bagging a brace whilst Kees Willis also netted. The nap hand of goals included a brace of headers. One came from Dan Churchill and the other from Ash Small, his from the edge of the 18-yard area after a clever training ground routine that led to the ball being delivered to the edge of the box from where Small found the net with an instinctive header.

Saturday offers United the chance to seal a top flight berth when they travel to Witheridge where a draw or a win will start the celebrations!

United are at full strength for the game with Ash Small looking to register goal number 20 of the Fresha campaign.

Make sure of next week’s Sidmouth Herald in which will be a match report and the thoughts of United boss Jeremy Schofield.

Fresha League Division One table (prior to this Saturday’s matches).

P W D L F A Pts

Elmore Res 23 20 2 1 90 14 62

Sidbury United 25 18 2 5 68 27 56

Wellington Town Res 24 15 3 6 74 39 48

Bow AAC 19 13 4 2 56 20 43

Witheridge Res 22 13 3 6 51 34 42

Alphington Res 23 11 3 9 49 43 36

East Budleigh 21 9 4 8 31 34 31

University 3rds 17 8 5 4 43 28 29

Beacon Knights 20 8 2 10 37 39 26

Exmouth Amateurs 22 7 0 15 37 56 21

Bickleigh 18 6 2 10 30 45 20

Heavitree United Res 21 5 2 14 32 55 17

Tipton St John 18 4 3 11 23 49 15

Cullompton Rangers 21 3 3 15 31 58 12

Newton Poppleford 24 0 0 24 12 123 0