Portishead Town made it 21 Toolstation Western League Division One games unbeaten against a stubborn Hengrove Athletic at Bristol Road on Saturday. 

Top scorer Ethan Feltham was suspended while new signing Joe Berry made his debut and was a threat throughout.

Town struggled to find a way through the numbers to create clear opportunities, and were restricted to half chances in the first half. 

The breakthrough arrived just before the half hour mark when Mitch Osmond’s cross in to the box wasn’t dealt with by Hengrove goalkeeper Ben Britton and it fell to Callum Eastwood whose ball forward hit a defender before Calum Townsend reacted first to finish, his ninth goal of the season. 

There was a warning sign when Athletic did manage to get the ball into the back of the net only to see the assistant referee’s flag raised as Posset went into the break 1-0 ahead.

The script for the second half was much more of the same and Berry thought he’d marked his debut with a goal, only for him to see the flag raised for offside to go seven points clear at the top of the table. 

Cribbs Reserves are the next opponents for Portishead when they visit Bristol Road on Boxing Day.