CORSHAM Town claimed county bragging rights over Devizes Town following the former’s 1-0 away victory at Nursteed Road in Western League Division One on Saturday.

Ash Alchin finished off a very well worked goal just before the hour to further strengthen Corsham’s excellent recent run of form away from home and the quarrymen’s grip on seventh place.

In a game of little quality, Corsham manager Justin Flowers was just glad to see his players apply themselves properly in the second half to grind out an important win.

Flower said a call to action at half-time geed his players up sufficiently and although the game could have been made safe late on, Flowers was delighted to see his team perform admirably on both sides of the ball.

He said: “Devizes have just appointed Nigel Tripp – an ex-Corsham manager – so we knew he’d be really up for it.

“We thought that would add a little bit of bite to the game and that’s the way it turned out.

“We didn’t turn up in the first half and it was a bit of a tough watch, but we were still the better side.

“We asked the guys to play the ball around a bit quicker in the second half and we started to play much better.

“Our goal was a really good footballing goal, then it was a case of deciding whether to go for the second or defending what we had.

“We had chances to get a second, but we didn’t take them and you’re always left hanging on.”

Victory for Corsham meant the club’s unbeaten run away from home stretched to five games in all competitions – four of those had been wins with just two goals conceded in that time.

Flowers was especially pleased to see his side survive a late flurry of Devizes chances and says he will take great heart from another good away win.

He said: “It was a really tough game anyway, and any game in this league is really tough away.

“But we had our Sherborne game reversed to an away game last week, so we’ve had three away games in a row.

“But we managed to get seven points from those three games and we kept two clean sheets. In any league, if you can get results like that it’s a positive.

“But everyone loves a 1-0 away win and we were left with a really positive feeling.”

Elsewhere, Calne Town continued their title challenge with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Portishead Town at Bremhill View.

After both sides his the woodwork inside the opening 15 minutes, Joe Broadbank put Ben Redford’s men in front against the run of play.

Stuart Windsor then doubled the hosts’ lead less than 10 minutes later, appearing to make the points safe.

But Portishead pulled a goal back midway through the second half, and almost snatched a point in injruy time.

Luckily for Calne, stopper Sam Thomson was at his athletic best to secure all three points.

Meanwhile, Warminster Town were beaten 3-0 at home by Longwell Green Sports.

Sports - who currently head the division - were reduced to 10 men in the first half after Christopher Alway was dismissed for two yellows, but struck three times to claim all three points.