Hellenic League: Wootton Bassett Town failed to halt Carterton's challenge for a top two Premier Division finish as they went down 3-1 at Rylands Way on Tuesday night.

Nick Tooley was on target for Bassett, whose place in the Hellenic League's top flight is already virtually secure for another season.

Pete Yeardley's side face another tough test on Saturday when they entertain sixth-placed local rivals Fairford Town.

Goals were hard to come by on Saturday with Highworth Town and Shortwood United drawing 0-0, Wootton Bassett and Abingdon United both failing to score and Fairford Town losing out to Carterton by the only goal of the game.

The highlight of Bassett's away draw at Abingdon was the first appearance in the senior side of Chris O'Connell, who was badly injured when he was involved in a car crash over 18 months ago.

Manager Pete Yeardley said: "It was great to see him back again, he looked good, had some class touches.

"And although he tired a bit towards the end he did a brilliant job for us in midfield and helped the side to get a deserved point against a strong Abingdon outfit."

The Wiltshire side came closest to scoring in the first half when Mark Vaughan slipped a good ball through for Gary Ashford to shoot past the keeper.

The ball hit the inside of the post and ran along the line before striking the other post and being cleared.

In the second half Bassett continued to match the home side, but had a let off midway through the half when a free header from a home forward was punched over the bar by defender Tony Macek in a crowded goalmouth, but went unseen.

Fairford Town did everything but score against second in the table Carterton, much to the dissapointment of manager Mark Webb, who said: "We should have been four goals up at the break, we played them off the park.

"But our finishing was awful, how we came out of the game with nothing I'll never know, we couldn't put the ball into the net and got punished."

Stoddart, Knowles, Matthews and Newton all missed good chances before Carterton scored the winner in the 63rd minute when a long throw from near the corner flag was missed by the defenders and Threlfall stooped to head the ball home.

Both Highworth Town and Shortwood failed to come to grips with the firm pitch and a lively ball and neither side looked like breaking the deadlock.

In Division One West, Purton scored a 90th minute winner to beat visitors Old Woodstock Town 2-1.

Earlier Dean Fitzgerald had given the visitors the lead on the half hour, but one minute after the restart good work by Dermot Hanlon enabled Adam Collier to put the Red House side on level terms and a good run by Allan Webb in the last minute set up Eurshall Fearon to snatch the winner.

There were no goals at Shrivenham, but a goal right on half-time by Robinson gave Cirencester a 1-0 win over Clanfield and Malmesbury Vics and Cheltenham Saracens shared the points in a 1-1 draw.

Yates scored on the half hour for Vics, with Grant equalising ten minutes from time for the Saracens.