SUTTON United recorded an important narrow 1-0 home win over local rivals Wellington Rangers, to maintain their lead at the head of the Hereford Times Herefordshire League Premier Division.

The win puts a dent in Rangers chances of challenging for the title as they now trail their in-form neighbours by 10 points.

The match was the tale of two penalties, one given for Sutton the other turned down at the other end. When Keith Holmans appeared to bring down Wayne McNeil inside the box the referee turned down the protests from the away side, but was more sympathetic at the other end when Scott Walker was penalised. Steve Radziejowski scored the crucial goal from the penalty spot.

James Morgan pulled off a number of good saves in the Wellington goal, one in particular from Stuart New worthy of mention. New was also guilty of missing a number of other chances. Glen Day, Sutton's stand-in keeper made a good save to prevent Danny Hill from grabbing an equaliser.

Ewyas Harold recorded their second big win of the week when they followed up a 4-0 midweek win over Hinton with an even bigger 8-0 drubbing of visiting Lads Club. The two results lift them back into second place, six points adrift of Sutton, but having played one game less.

Matt Pitt is in prime form this season, following up his two goals in midweek with a hat-trick on Saturday, to make it 51 for the campaign to date. After taking an early lead when Rob Cooper-Tomkins headed home from close-range, Harold were in complete control of the game.

Tony Richards chipped Billy Francis and John Ferneyhough seized on to a ricochet in the Lads Club defence to treble the score. Pitt placed a shot across and then rounded the over-worked visiting keeper to make it five at the break.

There was little respite after the resumption with Ferneyhough and Pitt adding to their tallies and Brian Dyer rounding off a good day for the home side with the final score.

Woofferton kept their good-run going with a hard-fought 3-1 away win at bottom side Kington Town Reserves.

The young, inexperienced home team surprised their title-challenging visitors in the early stages and took the lead inside five minutes, Jamie Williams rounding off a spell of pressure with his fifth goal in three games. Woofferton gradually settled into their stride and Neil Crump equalised when he steered home Justin Wheatley's accurate cross at the second attempt.

Jamie Marsh eventually beat the home keeper, after he had made a string of good saves, to put Woofferton in front. Woofferton could have paid the penalty for missed chances when Chris Lloyd had a clear sight of goal late on, but saw his weak shot saved by Dave Cooper.

From Cooper's clearance, Marsh ran through to net his second goal and secure the points.

The division's draw specialists, Hinton, were at it again when they shared the spoils in a 1-1 result with city rivals Pegasus at Gorsty Lane, to make it seven for the season.

Hinton were the more adventurous side in the opening third of the game, Steve Gosling missing from close-range in the opening minutes, but then it was the home team Pegasus who scored from their first real shot of the game. Danny Gagg in the Hinton goal got his hand to the ball, but couldn't prevent the score.

Damian Gallimore, who had missed a good chance earlier on, scored with a fine individual goal from 20 yards. Hinton found it difficult to break down a hard working home side but should have snatched the points, Neil Bloomfield volleyed wide from point-blank range in the closing stages.

Fownhope's poor run of form continued when they went down 7-2 at home to city rivals Westfields. They certainly didn't help their own cause, conceding a penalty, two own-goals and another goal direct from a corner, during the course of the game.

With skipper Darren Preece in good form, Fownhope started well, taking the lead when Steve Winmill lobbed the keeper from the edge of the box. The lead was short-lived as Mark Mortlock converted a penalty, awarded for pushing.

It seemed like Christmas when Gary Allmans conceded two own-goals to Westfields, who responded when their keeper allowed a speculative long ball from Simon Merrick to bounce over his head. Not to be outdone Chris Davies in the Fownhope goal presented Mortlock with his second goal to leave the score 4-2 in Westfields' favour at the interval.

Davies kicked straight to Mortlock for his third, Steve Slade scored direct from a corner and the home team's misery was complete when their former player Matthew Wargen rounded off the scoring.

In the other game Ledbury Town Reserves beat home team Weston 2-0.