"He's gonna sell you a chicken" Bishops Cleeve star at Shaftesbury with Mitres players and fans in fine form: Tier Hopping

Bishops Cleeve made the much anticipated trip to the excellently named Cockrams on Saturday with home side Shaftesbury AFC looking for their sixth win of the season while Paul Collicutt's Mitres were eager to continue their pursuit of the play-off places. Players and fans alike were at the top of their game with the men in green on the pitch providing an almost perfect first-half performance while the travelling Mitres faithful left feeling happy but with far sorer throats than they'd arrived with.

The day started out well when it was discovered that the seats on the Cheltenham Town team bus, which was being used by the Cleeve congregation, could recline. The leg room conundrum had brought some impressive contortion but this discovery meant that we'd arrive in good spirits and well-rested for the action to come. The roads surrounding the ground all appeared to prohibit access to coaches (with wheels, not whistles) but once we found a way in and parked up then it was time to get working.

One of the media and comms team was trusted with the gaffer's phone to help him out during a very busy festive period for his business which meant that we'd stationed ourselves in the covered terrace between the dugouts and were joined by the majority of those supporting Cleeve. The second stand was located opposite us and was a far larger seated number where the bulk of the home fans stationed themselves in order to steer clear of the increment weather. There appeared to have been some levelling done when the artifical pitch was laid due to the end behind one goal sitting far higher than the other with the changing room up a level more.

Our home for the 90 minutes

Crosses were the main theme of the game, fairly topical given the time of year, be it from open play or corners with Cleeve's first two goals coming from the boot of Aaron Evans-Harriott via various body parts from a crowd of bodies. The first was far less contentious than the other with an immaculate cross from 30-second captain Steve Davies finding Evans-Harriott at the far post where the former Cheltenham Town man was able to cooly slot it home in the 13th minute.

Evans-Harriott would then turn provider when his corner was bundled home by someone's something at the far post with the own goal scorer unclear. The Southern League website credited it to Aaron but I'm not too sure he can claim it!

The Mitres were clearly singing from the same hymn sheet throughout the first half, epitomised by Ross Langworthy's cushioned header down to James Harding who slotted home the third with four minutes left to play of the first half. This seemed to wrap up the game and meant that the second half was played in cruise control on the pitch and party mode off it with perhaps the most vocal Cleeve following so far this season.

Stay tuned for our upcoming album: Now That's What I Call Cleeve! featuring all the hits such as "So Stalley Can Wait", "Sell You A Chicken, He's Gonna Sell You A Chicken", "Noah, Noah, Nooaahhh, Nooooahhh", and "Pat, Give Us A Wave!".

Not much happened in the second half, although it did seem that Colly had swapped out some of his players with identical clones bred at La Masia, with the Bishops playing more like Barca. The passing play was beautiful with 'ole's aplenty. Shaftesbury did come close to spoiling Cleeve's clean sheet but Clayton was in fine form, as were the rest of his side, with an exceptional save to pluck the ball out of the top right corner and another to parry away from close range. Cleeve just about edged the second half sealing a controlling and dominant win with three goals, three points, and a shut-out to come home with.

They now find themselves four points outside the play-offs with a trip to fifth-place Evesham United in a boxing day derby at the Spiers and Hartwell Stadium, the former home of Colly and Clayton.