Bowers and Pitsea clinched the North Division title in style with a four-nil win over Dereham Town, and you can read about it here as it was the subject of our Bostik Matchday feature.

Elsewhere, we already knew which four sides would contest the playoffs, so now the battle is only for home advantage, psychological advantage, and the need to get as many points as possible due to the points-per-game lottery that may yet ruin someone’s promotion hopes. Aveley helped themselves in every category with victory at fifth place Coggeshall Town, Thomas Richardson and Alex Akrofi earning them the points despite Connor Hubble pulling a goal back five minutes from time.

Aveley go third, three points behind Maldon & Tiptree who got the only goal of the game at home to Basildon United, Liam Hope with it in the second half. Heybridge Swifts are fourth, but they were held at Tilbury, Kreshnic Krasniqi’s goal in the seventy-sixth minute coming just moments after Kris Newby had given the Dockers the lead.

At the bottom, we had a particularly significant match at the FutureFuel Stadium as Romford kept their escape hopes alive with victory over they only side they can catch, Witham Town. Witham came into this match with only one victory in their last ten matches, and the Boro made sure that statistic got even worse despite ending the game with ten men after Toby Barlow picked up a second yellow.

Romford were 2-1 up at that point, first half goals from Danny Nesbitt and Ayo Olukoga being followed by a Johnny Ashman goal with eighteen minutes remaining- but the ten men secured the victory with a third goal thirteen minutes from time, George Woodward with it. Romford are still six points behind third-bottom Town with only four matches remaining, but Witham might yet need to find a way to win again.

Mildenhall Town are a point behind Romford, and they were walloped at home to Great Wakering Rovers, Shomari Barnwell scoring a hat trick for the visitors in a three-nil victory.

Elsewhere, a Sam Mulready hat trick gave Soham Town Rangers an impressive 3-0 win at AFC Sudbury, whilst Felixstowe and Walton United continued their fine form with a 1-0 win at Canvey Island, for whom the season has been something of a disappointment. Liam Hillyard got the only goal of the game.

Bury Town are just above the Seasiders in 6th place, an Ollie Hughes double enough to defeat Brentwood Town, although an own goal had given Brentwood hope of getting something from the match. Grays Athletic and Barking shared four goals in our other match, a Jacob Hutchinson double putting Athletic in the driving seat only for Rashid Kamara and Abs Seymour to score for Barking.

By Ian Townsend