The Manor started this game as though they would comfortably extend their excellent run and dominated the opening exchanges.

They Braves looked very dangerous at corners and from one of these, Richard Simpson laid the ball into the path of Remi Nelson who nearly put away a great strike only to see the Bowers keeper claw his effort away.

In the next passage of play, a great through ball from Michael Giorgiou put away Courtney Linton for a one on one with the keeper but once again the Manor were denied. Bowers were trying to catch the home defence on the break and from one of these sporadic attacks a needless penalty was conceded.

A great let off for the Manor when the spot kick was blasted high over the bar. The game now lacked little in the way of incident and the only real talking point was whether the referee could be as bad in the second half as he was in the first! Half time 0-0.

The second half opened with the Manor guilty of giving away the ball far too much and another underhit ball from midfield left the Manor defence at sixes and sevens and Bowers moved the ball quickly forward and netted the opening goal with ease.

Any hopes that the officials would improve were soon dispelled when a ludicrous penalty was given against Manor defender Chris Barrett for handball. This time Bowers made no mistake from the spot to go two up.

The home side tried hard to reduce the arrears and a great move should have resulted in a goal but another one on one went begging. Bowers now closed the game out and held firm to run out winners.

Manor Team:

Steve LAMBERT: Jason FOX, Kieran KING; Jamil SYLLA, Joe ELLUL , Liam ALLEN; Junior YIADOM-KONADU, Fabio JESUS, Manley BROWN (Captain), Jakovo Odasi-Ulkueku, Liam MULCARE.

Substitutes: Tom QUERRY, Alinani MOUNTER , Alan EAMES, Beckley LOUKMAN, Antonio YOTOV, Ricardo AMADO.