THE Mid Cheshire First Division title is now within Middlewich Town's grasp.

The side's consistency in the closing stages of the season has seen them cut Barnton's massive lead at the top of the table to just one point.

And crucially Town have three games in hand with victory in each of those games all but guaranteeing them the league title.

Barnton have written off their chances of winning an eighth successive title with assistant manager Mark Warburton blaming a dip in form at the wrong time.

The title is in Town's hands with Terry Murphy's men able to claim a maximum of 70 points.

Only Poynton can offer any realistic threat to Town's title aspirations as they have a game in hand on Middlewich and could amass 68 points.

But Murphy isn't concerned about other teams and is looking only at the form of his own players.

He said: "We're playing well at the moment, but we need to keep that going during the final run in.

"We only need to think about ourselves and win our games, if we do that then the title is ours.

"Poynton are going to run us close, but they've got to play Barnton in the last game of the season so that's not going to be easy for them.

"Having said that I can't see Barnton beating them.

"We've got to go to Knutsford on Saturday, which is always difficult, and then we've got to play Rylands and Daten."

He added: "I've got faith in the lads though and we just need to make sure everything is right with the team.

"We'll be missing Les Miranda for three games as he's away on holiday and although he's been excellent for us since signing we've got the people to come in and do a job.

"I'll have Dave Dale back and he'll probably figure either from the start or on the bench."

Middlewich's latest victory came against Garswood on Saturday.

Murphy's side won 3-1 with the Town goals coming through Joey Roberts, Miranda and Mark Tomlinson.