A COUPLE of minutes to go and accomplished, unbeaten, and much envied Minsterworth wrapped up victory with their second goal. But it was the Bicknor boys who stole the honours.

"We had as much of the game as them," reflected Bicknor manager Darren Gwilliam.

"We also had a penalty turned down as the referee judged the offence was outside the box. It was close but the scores might have been level. Who knows what the outcome could have been after that?"

Gwilliam, in his third term as manager, has seen Bicknor up to the Premier and is delighted with their progress.

"We came up last season and the usual thing is to go straight back down again. But that has not happened. We were second up until Christmas but since then our form has dipped and we have been drawing or losing by the odd goal. But we are up there with the top three or four teams," he said.

Gwilliam reckons that but for Minsterworth's superiority the title chase would have been desperately close.

To date the top scorer is midfielder Tom Phillips who has netted a dozen and was emerged as one of the players of the season. Another in outstanding form has been right-back Ryan Hartley.

Gwilliam looks to the Bicknor Second Xl to fill vacancies but regrets they play three or four divisions lower. "It's a big gap to climb," he says.

His major hope is that he will be able to retain his present squad and add two or three more experienced players."If we can do that we have extra strength in depth to challenge the top teams," he said.

Meanwhile he is happy enough to repeat the comment of a Minsterworth official who said Bicknor had given the Severnside team a run for their money and had been one of the best sides they had played all season.