Griffiths' double hands Yate glory

Two first-half goals from former Mangotsfield United striker Dean Griffiths gave Yate Town a victory which lifted them out of the bottom four and pushed United into the drop zone.

Yate dominated the opening half but Mangotsfield had the better of the second half and pulled a goal back.

Mangotsfield were denied an equaliser by a sound defensive performance by Yate, particularly in the final 10 minutes.

Mangotsfield face the possibility of a walkout by a number of players after the cash-strapped club failed to pay them. Their players are also facing further salary cuts in the new year.

Manager Paul Milsom said: "I felt we did enough to deserve a point after the way we raised our game in the second half.

"All of the players were unhappy with the situation when they were not paid at the end of the game."

Yate manager Richard Thompson was pleased with the way his side defended in the second half as Mangotsfield went all out for an equaliser.

He said: "In the final half hour they came at us but we defended well and got players back behind the ball which was so much better than last week when we conceded eight goals at Stourbridge."

Yate have also transfer-listed Aaron Blakemore, who was left out of the side for Saturday's game.

Yate went close in the opening minutes when a header from Jake Reid hit the crossbar.

They took an 18th-minute lead when full-back Ed Vahid made a good run down the right and his low cross into the goalmouth was only half cleared to the edge of the penalty area for the lurking Griffiths to score with a low drive. Griffiths was just off target a couple of minutes later before striking again in the 27th minute to make it 2-0 when a cross from Jason Wood was only partially cleared for him to beat Clapham with a looping header.

Mangotsfield came out fired up for the second half with midfielder Ellis Wilmot causing problems with a series of well placed free-kicks.

Long throws by Matt Townley were also posing problems for the home defence.

An overhead shot by Mitchell Page was just off target as the visitors kept the home defence at full stretch.

Yate failed to clear the ball to leave Matt Groves a chance to score from close range at the far post.

Then Geraint Bater, Marcus Duharty and Wilmot all went close to equalising before subsitute Lee Jefferies came on as to steady the Yate rearguard.