A penalty save from Luke Rogers helped ensure that Shephall Wednesday came out on top in a battle of two winless sides in Hitchin Sunday League Division One.

The keeper made the stop in the second half to keep the score at 2-1 against Fairfield Park and Pete Smith wrapped up the 3-1 win late on, following good work from Lester Hancock.

Jamie Steele and Mitch Miller got the earlier goals for Wednesday.

Fox & Duck won 3-2 at BOCA Seniors and there were victories by the same score for FC Kings at Engineers Arms and St Johns against Stevenage Athletic.

Vita stayed on top of the table with a a 3-1 success over Excel.

Royston United are top in Division Two after a 4-0 win over Ashwell but Arlesey Town remain hot on their tails after an incredible 11-5 victory over St Ippolyts.

Stotfold Juniors and Buffs shared the spoils and picked up a point each in a 2-2 draw and GSS picked up their first win of the season, beating Albion 2-1 despite going down to 10 men very early on.

In Division Three Chells Rovers won 4-1 at home against AC Malone and Litlington are yet to drop any points as they won 4-2 away against Hitchin Town Supporters.

Sandon’s margin of victory over North Herts Hatters was 2-0 and Coach & Horses moved to the top of the table following their 3-2 win against The Hogs Head.

The final game of the day saw Kimpton finally open their points account for the season at the fourth attempt with a single second half goal beating FC Inter Malone.

Determined to put right the failings that led to a seven-goal defeat last time out, Kimpton succeeded in their mission showing solidity at the back, heaps of industry in the middle of the park and some fine work from those up top.

The first half saw them create numerous good chances but some fine and at times last-ditch defending kept the visitors’ goal intact.

The closest they came was Ali Swinson’s thundering volley from outside the box that hit and floored a Malone defender.

After the restart it was Malone who went on the offensive and they would have been disappointed not to find themselves ahead following a series of free-kicks on and around the edge of the Kimpton penalty area.

One of them clipped the top of the crossbar.

But with just over 20 minutes remaining a James Mason corner saw Abdul Haque power home a close-range header to put Kimpton ahead against the run of play.

Malone upped the pressure in search of an equaliser but superb defending from the Kimpton back line saw the score remain 1-0 and the home side claim all three points.

Kimpton climb off the bottom of the table as a result but victory did come at a cost however as Kimpton lost left-back Connor Logan with a nasty back injury that may see him out of action for several weeks.

Results, October 11

Division One: BOCA Seniors 2 Fox & Duck 3; Excel 1 Vita 3; Engineers Arms 2 FC Kings 3; FC St Johns 3 Stevenage Athletic 2; Fairfield Park 1 Shephall Wednesday 3.

Division Two: Arlesey Town 11 St Ippolyts 5; Stotfold Juniors 2 Buffs 2; GSS 2 The Albion 1; Royston United 4 Ashwell 0.

Division Three: Chells Rovers 4 AC Malone 1; Hitchin Town Supporters 2 Litlington Athletic 4; North Herts Hatters 0 Sandon 2; Coach & Horses 3 The Hogs Head 2; Kimpton 1 FC Inter Malone 0.

Fixtures, October 18

Division One: FC Kings v FC St Johns; Fox & Duck v Excel; Shephall Wednesday v Engineers Arms; Vita v Stevenage Athletic; BOCA Seniors v Fairfield Park.

Division Two: GSS v Stotfold Juniors; Buffs v Royston United; St Ippolyts v The Cock; Ashwell v Lea Sports PSG; Almond Tree v The Albion.

Division Three: AC Malone v The Hogs Head; Coach & Horses v Fairfield Rovers; Kimpton v North Herts Hatters; Litlington Athletic v FC Inter Malone; Sandon v Hitchin Town Supporters.