Winchester City surrendered pole position for the first time this season on Saturday after surprisingly being held 1-1 at home by a fast-improving Cowes Sports side.

Everything started brightly for City who led after 31 minutes when Kevin Brewster fired home from 15 yards following a cross by Liam Green.

However, an angled drive from Darren Powell on 63 minutes secured the Yachtsmen a deserved point.

"It was a rather scrappy affair today and no one deserved to win it," said Winchester City secretary Ray Murphy.

Undefeated Wimborne Town leapfrog their title rivals into top spot after they triumphed 2-1 at Thatcham Town.

"It's a shame that it's not May instead of December," smiled Magpies' manager Paul Arnold. "Obviously it's nice to be top of the table but it is still very early days yet, we must keep on picking up as many points as we can.

"I felt that it was a comfortable 2-1 victory as we missed a lot of chances in the first half.

"Having said that, it was a very pleasing result against a hard-working Thatcham side.

Gareth Barnes gave Wimborne the lead after 20 minutes with a tap-in from a Mark Smith cross before the Berkshire side levelled ten minutes later with another tap-in by Ian Davies after Russell Green had headed the ball down.

The all-important goal came midway through the second half, Barnes turning supplier for Smith, who crashed home a left-footed screamer from just outside the penalty area.

Third-placed Gosport Borough nailed Whitchurch United firmly to the bottom of the table, striker Neil Scammell grabbing a hat-trick in their 6-0 romp at Longmeadow.

Darren Robson opened the floodgates with a 25-yard piledriver after 15 minutes with Scammell netting his first just before half-time with a header from Karl Lis's near-post delivery.

Ian Rew started and finished a superb six-man move from one penalty area to the other to make it 3-0 before Scammell added a fourth on 67 minutes with a fine solo effort.

Scammell unselfishly squared the ball to Fraser Quirke for number five and then a sharp turn and shot on the edge of the penalty area by Scammell saw him complete his hat-trick in the last minute.

Gosport boss Mick Marsh said: "It's a good result as it's never easy to come up here and win.

"We were certainly helped by Darren Robson who controlled the midfield for us today - it's one of the best performances he has put in here.

"The victory makes it very interesting as we have games in hand and I believe that we can close the gap on the top two," added Marsh.

Former Pompey ace Guy Whittingham's AFC Newbury remain fourth in the table following their 3-0 home success against Brockenhurst at Faraday Road.

"It was a good win for us today, I felt that we really took control of the game once we had scored our first goal," said the former Fratton Park favourite.

That first goal was 65 minutes coming, some good build-up play involving Ashley Vine and Danny Mattingley ending with Mattingley's cross being forced home by Jeremy Newton.

Mattingley smacked a 20-yard free-kick to make it 2-0 some ten minutes later and Guy Roberts rammed in a third with the last kick of the match.