Albion Sports stepped up their bid for promotion from Baris Northern Counties East League Division One with a narrow home victory over mid-table outfit Bottesford Town yesterday.

Charlie Flaherty proved to be the match-winner as his strike midway through the second half was the only goal in a very tight game.

The visitors could feel hard done by as they hit a post late on and forced the home keeper to work, while Albion scraped through.

The three points lifted Albion one place to third - they are still six points behind leaders Athersley Recreation but they have a game in hand.

Kulwinder Sandhu’s men are two points adrift of second-placed Cleethorpes Town but they have two games in hand on them.

Sandhu said: “We are glad to get the win after not playing well. The conditions were very difficult and I thought Bottesford were unlucky not to score.

"The things we can take out of it are the clean sheet and the fact that it took our unbeaten run to ten games - the last time we lost was at Knaresborough early last month.”

Rivals Eccleshill United snatched a draw when Victor Balis netted in the penultimate minute at Hallam, who had taken a 16th-minute lead through Aaron Moxam.

However, the point gained did lift the Eagles up two places to 16th because Askern Villa were frustrated by a postponement and Yorkshire Amateur, who won at Eccleshill last weekend, were hammered 8-1 at home by AFC Emley.