Walton & Hersham have gone a step closer to winning the Southern League Premier South title with a 1-0 Surrey derby win over Farnham Town.
The Swans overcame a tough test against their county rivals to go 12 points clear at the top of the table with nine games left to play.
It was a fast start at the Elmbridge Xcel Sports Hub with end-to-end action seeing both sides have great chances to open the scoring. Kash Odiase worked his way into the box and looked to be brought down, but the referee waved the penalty appeals away.
Town launched a swift counterattack that resulted in Owen Dean going one-on-one with Jos Barker and he looked destined to score, but the Swans' number one stood firm to deny him.
Johl Powell had the next best chance to break the deadlock fall to him when he wriggled his way through the visitors' defence and into the box, but his low strike was saved by Michael Eacott, meaning it was all square at half-time.
The hosts found the opening goal 10 minutes after the break when Dawid Rogalski's hold-up play kickstarted a fine move in attack. The number nine played the ball to Powell, who in turn found Mason Obeng making a brilliant run into the left side of the Town area.
Obeng collected the pass and set himself before firing a low strike past Eacott and into the far corner.
Farnham looked desperate to find an equaliser from there and almost found it shortly after. A corner was cleared to Mat MacKenzie on the edge of the box, allowing him to meet it on the volley, sending a strike sailing towards the top corner, but Barker got across in outstanding fashion to turn it away.
The shotstopper then came to his side's rescue once again in the late stages when he went head-to-head with an attacker to thwart the visitors from finding a levelling goal.
With their two games in hand, Town knew they could close the gap on the league leaders with a win at the Hub, but the Swans' victory sees them move further away from their Surrey rivals, as well as second-placed Gloucester City.
Jakub Pietrzak's side face two long away trips this week as they travel to Wimborne Town on Tuesday before making the journey to Tiverton Town on Saturday.
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