Lymington & New Milton leapt to the top of the SWL Division 1 table last night with a 2-0 home victory against Alton Town.

But manager Ian Robinson was in no mood for celebrating.

"It was a very lacklustre and flat performance," sighed Robinson, pictured.

"If we've got any pretentions of winning this league then we've got to do a lot better than we did tonight or we won't be at the top for very long."

After half an hour of bombarding the Alton goal, the Linnets finally made their breakthrough on 32 minutes when Peter Smith slotted his shot under the keeper.

The home side sealed victory midway through the second half when Kev James engineered himself some space on the edge of the penalty area to fire home.

Lymington's first opponents as leaders comes on Saturday when they play host to AFC Newbury, who climbed up into third spot last night with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Hamworthy United.

Ryan Williams opened the scoring for the Berkshire side on 41 minutes after the keeper could only parry Lee Chudy's effort.

Newbury added a second soon after half-time when Sam Rae's header was fumbled over the line.

Jeremy Newton added a third in the 75th minute with a thumping 25-yard drive.

After defeats by Brading Town and Moneyfields in the last six days, Cowes Sports returned to winning ways with a 3-1 success against a beleaguered Brockenhurst side, who had five players cry off from their Island trip.

Elliott Day intercepted a back pass to give the Islanders a 15th-minute lead that they soon doubled when Michael Pointer netted with a looping header from Michael Butt's free-kick.

Paul White reduced the arrears for the New Forest side early in the second half but Cowes clinched the points with Day's second as he raced clear of the defence to slot past the advancing keeper.

Lymington & New Milton top Division 1, and Lymington Town are now ten points clear in Division 2 following their 2-0 victory at Bishop's Waltham Town.

In fact John Pyatt's men now need just nine more points from their last nine games to be mathematically certain of promotion next season.

Town managed their latest win despite being reduced to ten men when Simon Young was red-carded for pushing an opponent after just 15 minutes.

Danny Veal headed in a John Bailey free kick on 30 minutes and Kev James bagged their second midway through the second half.

After going three years without an away win, Fawley made it two inside a fortnight with a battling 3-2 verdict at Amesbury Town.

Strikes by Dave Downie (26), Alex Bracher (39) and Ian Moore (45) powered the Oilers into a 3-0 interval lead before the Wiltshire side rallied through Wayne Kerr (57) and Gareth Horner (90).

Amesbury's Dean Skelly and Fawley's Luke Atkinson were both sent off.

In the quarter-finals of the Isle of Wight Gold Cup, a 20-yard strike from Chris Bridges on 53 minutes and another by Dave Greening five minutes from time saw Newport triumph 2-0 at East Cowes Vics.