Worcester Raiders climbed to the top of the West Midlands Regional Premier Division table with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over a battling Cradley Town at Sixways.

Despite dominating the match after a fractured opening half an hour, it required a penalty ten minutes from time, dispatched in confident style by Isaac Cooper, to seal the three points and send Raiders to the summit.

Raiders saw out the game in confident style but found it difficult to find their feet in the opening stages of the game. With both teams struggling to retain possession, Raiders were given an early warning sign as goalkeeper Matt Gwynne was forced into urgent action as he superbly came off his line and thwarted the onrushing Cradley striker one-on-one.

On ten minutes, Raiders were punished for more sloppy defending as Town skipper, Darren Whitley rose to easily nod home a Sean Geddes free kick from the right. Fired up for a reaction led by captain Logan Stoddart, Raiders came to life and got themselves on level terms three minutes later. The Cradley keeper made a calamitous error to gift an overhit ball into the box from Cooper, to a grateful Dan Flowers, the centre back having the simple task of passing into an empty net.

The game became scrappy once more after an injury stoppages and it wasn't until the half hour mark that Raiders began to show the quality that has taken them to the top of the league. A flurry of chances came Raiders' way as half-time approached, with a combination of poor finishing and last ditch defending preventing Raiders going into the break ahead. Gwynne was called into action only once more, confidently dealing with a tame snap-shot from the edge of the box.

The second half proceeded in the same fashion that the first ended, Raiders dominant but unable to find a goal to put them ahead. Their profligacy was almost punished on 55 minutes, as Whitley had another free header from the centre of the box that he could only direct straight at Gwynne.

Cooper's delivery was superb throughout the match and continued to cause chaos in the Town area with no one able to attack the ball with sufficient conviction. Further chances came the way of Zaqib Hussain, who had a good chance one-on-one after racing clear of the defence, Kyle Belmonte and a speculative Luke Gaffney effort from the edge of the box.

With the game edging towards the final ten minutes, the supporters might have been forgiven for thinking it might not be Raiders' day. Relief was felt throughout the stadium, after Cooper was felled in the box by a poor challenge, and he coolly slammed the penalty into the net.

The supporters, breaking into song for the first time, drew a wave from joint manager, Karl Gormley, as Raiders confidently saw out the match, playing some lovely football.

A strong performance by the league leaders overall, limiting the visitors to few set-piece opportunities and it could have been a bigger scoreline on another day.