Sholing are walking tall at the top of the Zamaretto South & West – thanks to one of their smallest players.

For the second time in four days, Tyronne Bowers weighed in with a sweetly struck free kick as the unbeaten Boatmen edged a tight game 1-0 at Abingdon United last night.

Having opened the scoring with a wind- assisted effort in Saturday’s 3-2 home win over Gosport, Bowers curled another set-piece beauty inside the near post in the 55th minute at Northcourt Road.

Sholing also had two good efforts from Barry Mason – one hitting the woodwork and the other cleared off the line – but it was a far from easy task against an Abingdon side who led the table early-sea son but have now lost their last five league games.

“Heaven only knows how they’ve lost so many,” said Sholing boss Dave Diaper, whose side have leapfrogged two points clear of Paulton Rovers at the top.

“The movement of their front two was excellent and we had our backs to wall playing up the slope in the first half.

“In the second half it evened out a bit and Tyzer curled in a crack ing free kick that gave the ’keeper no chance.

“Abingdon had a lot of pressure in the game, but didn’t really hurt us. Lee Webber only made two saves of note, but they had a shot in the last three minutes that came off the bar.”