PURTON manager Justin Miller is steeling his players for ‘ten cup finals’ as his side head down the home straight of their Hellenic League Division One West campaign.

On Saturday, Miller’s men stretched their unbeaten run to nine matches in the league with a derby victory over Fairford Town, who had Jack Allan sent off early in the second half.

“We’ve got ten games to go now – I see it as ten cup finals,” said the Purton boss.

“We’ve got Carterton at home next week, Lydney at home the following week and then we’ve got one home game left. We’ve got to go away from home to some games but we’ve got to do what we do best and see where it takes us.

“It was very scrappy second half but they (Fairford) looked better than us and worked harder than us and they had the player sent off, which sort of galvanised them I thought.

“We still created some good chances and all in all, you probably would have said a fair result would have been a draw but we carried on fighting to the end and nicked a goal – that obviously makes you feel good.”

Sam English fired Purton ahead around ten minutes before the break, with the midfielder shimmying past a challenge before hitting a low left-footed shot into the bottom corner.

Fairford then went down to ten men in the second period as striker Allan was shown a straight red for an alleged stamp on Tom Swindall but the visitors did level things up as Dan Thomson knocked a corner back into the danger area and defender Ben Hillerby was on hand to fire home.

Purton’s Dave Toomey came off the bench to join his son Lee on the pitch and struck the upright with a diving header. The home side got their winner in the closing stages as Jerome Dodson’s cross was nodded down by Joe Dorey and the arriving Richie Saunders blasted a volley into the bottom of the net from the edge of the penalty box.

Fairford chief Gareth Davies thought that his team were desperately unlucky to come out of the game second best.

He said: “It’s a bitter pill to swallow. I felt that we were the better side in the first half and defence-wise, I thought we defended okay and had better spells of possession.

“I don’t know what to say about the sending off because considering not one of the players complained; (the referee) has obviously seen something and it’s actually given us kick up the backside.

“I thought we played quite well overall but it’s just disappointing not to get something for it. I thought they worked their socks off and put a shift in, and deserved more.”

Meanwhile, New College’s match at home to North Leigh United was postponed.