LYE Town have lost grip on second place in the Midlands League table after suffering back-to-back defeats to title rivals.

After a narrow loss to league leaders Alvechurch, the Stourbridge Road outfit were slayed with an injury time 1-0 defeat at home to Coleshill Town on Saturday.

Despite the results, which puts Coleshill five points clear of Lye in second place, co-manager Martin Thomas said he could not fault the performance of his players.

Thomas said: “It was gut-wrenching to go down that late in the game, especially as the goal was a fluke.

“There was nothing in the game. Coleshill couldn’t have argued with a nil-nil and we can have no complaints with the performance, the luck is just not with us at the moment.

“But you make your own luck and we have to keep pushing and the results should go our way. The performances have been good, it’s just the results have not.

“We’ve played Alvechurch and Coleshill in the last two games and have gone toe-to-toe with both of them. We beat both of them away and now they have beaten us at home, so they’ve cancelled each other out. It’s even now.

“If we don’t win the league, it won’t be because of those games.”

Lye face another home tie against a Highgate United side at the wrong end of the table this Saturday (3pm kick off), with Thomas hoping his players turn their good performances into points.

He said: “We never expect to win in this league. Highgate might be down the bottom of the league but we lost to Brocton. Any team can pick up a win.

“But we need to bounce back on Saturday with a few goals and a clean sheet – we need to stop conceding sloppy goals.”

The side have been boosted with the signing of former Stourbridge FA Cup hero Ryan Rowe. “We did a deal to get Ryan here, but he’s not yet up to full fitness,” Thomas added.

“We gave him 60 minutes on Saturday but we just need to get him going. He is a proven goalscorer and that is exactly the kind of player we need at the moment.”

Lye ladies were unlucky not to secure all three points after a 2-2 draw against top-of-the table Burton Albion at St George’s Park.

After going 2-1 ahead and the points seemingly heading back to Stourbridge Road, Burton scored an equaliser ten minutes from time.

The Lyonesses management team were left to reflect on an “encouraging” performance against a good Burton outfit, and have set second place as a realistic target for the end of the season.