WELSHPOOL remain rooted to the foot of Henshalls Shropshire League Two following a three wicket defeat at fellow strugglers Albrighton.

The early loss of Paul Chapman, snared LBW by Sam Wood (1-21) for 15 and Dan Chodecki, bowled for a duck by Jake Cousins, saw surviving opener Nick Davies joined by captain Russell Cadwallader for the third wicket.

The duo combined to work the scoreboard until Davies fell to Alex Renton for 26.

Cadwallader (54) was joined by Chris Proctor (31) in leading the Pool middle order until both fell to Darren Shimmons (2-31).

Tom Bowen (19) and John Bills (11) were unable to galvanise the rest of the middle and tail end as Renton (4-18) and Cousins (2-38) restricted Pool to 190-9 to defend.

Robert Anderson (2-24) made his presence felt early in reply with Carlton Murray (3) caught by Proctor before Chapman stumped Bilal Anwar 4).

Prictor (2-10) maintained pressure on the home middle order with Wood caught by Matt McWhinnie for 17.

However surviving opener Renton continued to work the scoreboard and joined by Shimmons in a fruitful middle order stand before the latter was caught by Davies off McWhinnie (1-43) for 29.

Albrighton wobbled as Cousins was run out by Anderson for 10 and Navnit Jogi was caught by Bills off Cadwallader (1-26) for 10 before Renton was finally sent back to the pavilion, caught by Davies off Proctor(2-10) for a top scoring 78.

However Albrighton steadied the ship with Hardeep Kumar (15no) joined by Andy Parker (1no) in forming an unbroken eighth wicket stand to guide the hosts to 191-7 and victory.

The result leaves Welshpool 20 points adrift at the foot of the second division table with the season reaching its midway point.