TITANS Winchester City and Lymington & New Milton maintained status quo at the summit with crucial victories last night.

With just three games go, Neil Hards' Winchester stay top on goal difference after seeing off Hamworthy United 2-0 at the Denplan City Ground, while the Linnets safely negotiated a potentially tricky hurdle 3-1 at third-placed Thatcham.

All three Lymington goals were headers by central defenders from Ben Thomson set-pieces.

Former Salisbury striker Sean Cook fired Thatcham ahead inside ten minutes, but the New Forest outfit responded with two Paul Towler goals - the first from a corner and the second from a free-kick - and one by Darren Powell.

It was enough to restore the faith of manager Ian Robinson, who had conceded the title to Winchester after Saturday's embarrassing 2-1 reverse against nine men at the City Ground.

"I've always believed we're a good team and we've responded magnificently tonight and shown lots of character," said the Linnets boss.

"I didn't get any apologies from the players after Saturday - you never do from footballers - but the general consensus was that we'd let ourselves down badly and played nowhere near the standard we're accustomed to.

"We put that right tonight and all we can do now is keep the pressure on Winchester."

City boss Neil Hards was not surprised to learn of Linnets' triumph.

He said: "That's a good result for them at Thatcham, but I expect them to win every game. They have to win the same as we do, but they're reliant on other people to do them a favour."

Having beaten Winchester only ten days previously and knocked Gosport out of the Wessex League Cup, Hamworthy looked capable of helping the Linnets' cause.

But this time Winchester dealt comfortably with the Dorset side with Mark Smith and Jamie Laidlaw setting up Ian Mancey for the 28th-minute opener.

Laidlaw netted the second just past the hour mark after keeper Nick Hutchings had parried Graeme Gee's shot.

Hards reflected: "It went okay tonight. We dominated proceedings and kept possession quite well, but there were some isolated errors we could clean up on when the passing went astray.

"All in all, though, I'm quite happy. We created chances."

Winchester travel to Andover on Friday night looking to avenge a 3-1 Easter Monday defeat against Ady Burford's Lions, while the Linnets face a Saturday trip to in-form Moneyfields.

Much to the regret of AFC Newbury boss Guy Whittingham, his side are no longer involved in the championship race.

The Berkshire club's Faraday Road ground passed its FA inspection with flying colours, but the post-Vase decline continued last night when they crashed 1-0 at home to ten-man Totton.

Steve Whitcher bagged the winner five minutes into the second half after Mark Osman had cut in from the right and unselfishly squared the ball to the former Hamble striker.

The Testwood Park club played the last half-hour undermanned after Gareth Byers was sent off for a second bookable offence.

"I've just given the players the analogy of our games being like boxing matches," said Whittingham. "We get loads of points in front but then get knocked out.

"We had six shots in the first half tonight, but only one on target. For all the good build-up play, there's no end result. It's very frustrating."