AFC Valour 2-1 Ashton Prime

Prime travelled to East Peckham to take on the early pace-setters beset by selection problems.

Leigh was joined on the sidelines by Smith-Foreman, Ellis, Tom Matthews, Gilbert and Garside - forcing Prime into a reshuffle. Jamie Barker donned the gloves with Goldsmith and Sankey coming into the defence and Kneebone returning on the wing, with Skovborg-Hansen released from goalkeeping duties to resume his normal role as a Striker.

The home side starting positively and knocked the ball around with the confidence of a side who had won all of their games so far this season.

The Prime backline witheld the storm with the help of some last-ditch challenges by Goldsmith and Mazurkiewicz and 2 goal-line clearances by Sankey.

The deadlock was broken after 25 minutes as the Valour striker smashed a 25 yard drive against the crossbar, and his strike partner beat Mazurkiewicz to the rebound to stab beyond the stranded Barker.

Prime however, went straight up the other end and won a throw near the corner flag. Goldsmith's long throw was expertly flicked on by Mellors and as Valour panicked, Kneebone swooped to slot home the equaliser off the post.

The hosts were stunned and Prime continued to have a good spell, which resulted in speculative efforts from Skovborg-Hansen.

The second half started with Valour back on top and with their gifted central-midfielder pulling the strings, Prime's midfield was having to work overtime. But Leaver and Mellors were up to the task and the back 4 continued to look solid despite the territorial dominance enjoyed by the hosts.

Barker was called into action to make an excellent save from a dipping free-kick and Sankey made another goal-line clearance as Prime continued to frustrate Valour.

On the break, Carl Barker had an excellent chance to snatch the lead for Prime, but his shot was half-stopped by the keeper, who agonisingly just took enough pace off the ball to deny The Numbers.

French replaced the stricken Skovborg-Hansen with 20 minutes to go, and he battled hard up front to try to give the Prime defence some respite. But with just 10 minutes left, a deep cross to the far post floated beyond Barker and the Valour winger bundled home from close range.

Man of the Match: Sankey - Outstanding performance, helping to nullify the Valour threat.