TIVIDALE maintained their push at the top end of the West Midlands Premier League by putting Shifnal to the sword.

Doubles from Tyree Clarke and Demetri Brown and strikes from Darragh Bustin and Liam Wilkinson handed them a convincing 6-1 success last Saturday.

Dale remain in second place and four points behind pacesetters Wolverhampton Sporting.

Boss Dave King was delighted with another fine performance that saw his side quickly return to winning ways after being held to a 2-2 draw by Black Country Rangers last Tuesday.

King said: "I think we were good value for the goals we scored in the end.

"I said a few weeks back that we had that in our locker and that we just weren't being clinical enough.

"We did really well and could have had even more in the final 20 minutes."

The home side were ahead in under two minutes, as the Shifnal defence had no answer to the pace of Brown as he fed Clarke who beat visiting keeper Jake James with a neat strike.

However, Shifnal pressed and on eight minutes got their reward as skipper George Williams got on the end of a Brandon Taylor free-kick from the right to level.

But that was good as it got for the visitors as Tivi soon took control.

They eventually regained the lead on 28 minutes when Wilkinson fired into the top corner from just outside the area.

Within four second half minutes the game was over as a contest. First, on 47 minutes, a right-sided Joe Lawley free-kick was met by Brown. His header cannoned off the upright but Clarke was the first to react.

Then two minutes later it was 4-1 after Bustin was sent away down the left flank and his cross was met on the volley by Brown.

Brown and Bustin then wrapped up the win by finding the back of the net in the last ten minutes.

The boss was full of praise for goalscorer Clarke after the forward found the back of the net following a difficult time with injury this term.

He said: "The season has been a little stop-start for him, as I think he'd admit himself.

"He has struggled with injury and we've had to make sure he was ready before we bought him back.

"His quality is there for all to see and he's now had a few starts under his belt and got the goals. I'm really pleased for him because he's another that has really bought into what we are trying to do here."

Tivi are due to ring the changes for their Walsall Senior Cup clash at Pelsall Villa on Tuesday night before welcoming Bilston Town to the Beeches this Saturday (3pm kick-off).

King may look to add to his squad in the coming weeks but will first see how quickly Liam Smith, Chris Bladen, Freddie Watt and Brad Welding recover from injury.