CHIPPENHAM Town manager Tommy Saunders believes the race for promotion to the Dr Martens Premier Division will go down to the wire after Weston-super-Mare fought back to snatch a point at Hardenhuish Park on Saturday 16 March.

The result maintained the Bluebirds' eight-point cushion over their west country rivals, who have played two games less.

But the point also enabled Solihull Borough to move to within seven points of Saunders' second-placed side.

Chippenham faced the midlands side in their second key promotion clash of the week at Hardenhuish Park last night.

Saunders has now all but conceded defeat in the Western Division title race to Halesowen Town, who also profited from Saturday's draw between Chippenham and Weston, but believes the race for the second promotion spot is far from over.

He said: "Everything is going to be interesting and it is all to play for. I think we can safely say Halesowen are up, with three of us battling for the runners-up spot.

"If you'd have given me a point before Saturday's game, I would have taken it and we'll have to get on with it now.

"If we had lost it, it would have meant Weston would have picked up on us.

"They haven't so the situation is still the same. What it has done, though, is brought Solihull massively back into the picture."

Although Saunders would have settled for a point prior to Saturday's clash, he was upset his side had failed to collect all three after dominating the opening period against their big-spending visitors.

He said: "I am disappointed, really. In the first half I thought we were the clearly better side and should have been a couple of goals up.

"But we never cleared our lines properly for their goal and then had a blatant penalty turned down at the end.

"I thought the turning point in the game was when Steve Brown had a great chance to make it 2-0 and Mark Bryant has made an absolutely wonderful save.

"If it had been 2-0 then, I think we'd have gone on and won."

Despite his disappointment at the final scoreline, Saunders felt the game had been a fine advertisement for Western Division football.

He said: "The standard of the game showed we are two of the better teams in the league.

"It was a great game, a fantastic crowd of 900 and a wonderful atmosphere.

"All my players are saying they would like every game to be like this next season and hopefully it will be."