Gloucestershire County Youth League: Yate Town tightened their grip on the league championship with a comfortable 5-0 win over visiting Bristol Manor Farm.

Goals by Greg Parr, Craig Power, Alex Lambert, Troy Budd and substitute Matt Tovey opened up a seven-point gap at the top. And with only home and away fixtures respectively against Thornbury Town to come, starting tomorrow night, a win in either game will hand Yate the title for the second successive season.

Second-placed Cadbury Heath went to lowly Shirehampton needing victory to maintain their challenge and found themselves on the receiving end of a surprise defeat.

Heath got off to a fine start when Billy Fletcher scored, only for Dan Griffiths to equalise for Shire, who then took the lead with an Alex West effort five minutes before the interval.

There was still time for Tom Sellars to equalise for Heath and send the teams into the break tied at 2-2, before James Hubbard fired them in front midway through the second half.

At that stage, Heath looked sure to take the points but Shire fought back with three goals from West, Luke Tanner and Kyle Buffery to clinch a hard-fought 5-3 win and put a major dent in their opponents' title hopes.

Wotton Rovers, with several games in hand, could yet wrest the crown away from Yate after winning 3-0 at Winterbourne United thanks to goals from Tom Stubbs, Richard Thwaite and Kieran Frost.

Elsewhere, Thornbury Town won 2-1 at Longwell Green Sports.

RESULTS

April 14: Forest Green Rovers 1 Shirehampton 3.

April 15: Winterbourne Utd 2 Cadbury Heath 4, Yate Tn 5 Bristol Manor Farm 0.

April 19: Longwell Green Spts 1 Thornbury Tn 2, Shirehampton 5 Cadbury Heath 3, Winterbourne Utd 0 Wotton Rov 3.

FIXTURES

Sunday, April 26: Longwell Green Spts v Winterbourne Utd, Thornbury Tn v Cheltenham Saracens, Wotton Rov v Forest Green Rovers.

Tuesday, April 28: Forest Green Rovers v Cadbury Heath.

Wednesday, April 29: Thornbury Tn v Winterbourne Utd.

Thursday, April 30: Longwell Green Spts v Bristol Manor Farm.