ALVECHURCH made it 11 league wins on-the-spin after a hard fought victory away at mid-table Shepshed Dynamo.

The tight 1-0 win, which kept Church top of the table and four points clear of fellow title-chasers Lye Town, proved tough for the team, but manager Ian Long was pleased his side showed a different side to their game.

He said: “We didn’t play very well, but the conditions weren’t great so that didn’t help.

“We showed another side to us. We showed that we can dig in and grind the result out. Early in the season we probably would have conceded and not won that game, but we stood strong and got the three points.”

The win moved Church further ahead of Lye and Westfields at the top of the Midlands League, however, their two rivals have games in hand over the leaders.

Long added: “Both Westfields and Lye can move above us if they win the games in hand, but I’m not looking at the table yet, it’s much too early in the season and there’s still a lot of football left to play.

“We’re quite an experienced group, I’ve been there and won it with Tividale, and we were in the title race all of last season.

“But it’s good to be on top and let the other sides play catch up.”

Long now hopes his side can avoid a repeat of the upset they suffered last season when they head to lowly Boldmere St Michaels on Saturday.

He said: “Boldmere is not going to be an easy game. They picked up a good win at the weekend beating Coleshill 4-2.

“They’re also a bit of a bogey team for us. Last year we drew at home and lost away on their 3G pitch which is the game that I think cost us the league, so we’ll be going there looking to put that right.

“We’ve almost got a full bill of health, and we’ve managed to get our games in early this year as the pitch at Alvechurch does play up in the winter.

“It’s good that we can put all our focus on one game each Saturday, especially in the run up to Christmas.”

The Church also visited Long’s former club Tividale this week in a JW Hunt Cup clash, and a “comfortable” 2-0 win sees the side face Brocton in the next round.

Long said: “It was a good game. We made nine changes from the win over St Andrews so it gave us the chance to give out younger lads a run-out and they all played really well.

“I was really impressed. It’s pleasing to see some of the other first team lads who haven’t played much this season and give them some more experience.”