HOLBEACH UNITED 2
HARBOROUGH TOWN 1
Charley Sanders jumped off the bench to score an injury-time winner for Holbeach United on Saturday – and send his side top of the table.
Sanders buried a brilliant strike three minutes into added time to give the Tigers a 2-1 win over Harborough Town at Carter’s Park on what could prove to be a pivotal day in their hopes of landing the ChromaSport UCL Premier Division title.
Holbeach had earlier taken an 18th-minute lead when the free-scoring George Zuerner netted his eighth of the season from a Luke Avis cross.
That’s how it stayed all the way up until the 82nd-minute, with Harborough – who improved markedly in the second half – levelling through Dan Forbes.
That set the stage for Sanders to pinch the points for Seb Hayes’ charges in the dying seconds and moved them ahead of Newport Pagnell on goal difference.
With Hayes serving the first game of his five-match stadium ban, number two Daz Edey was in charge on Saturday.
He feels that going top – albeit for just as few days as Yaxley leapfrogged them on Tuesday night – was a big moment for the Tigers, but admits that as many as six other sides have a chance of winning the title in what is the closest race in a long time.
“I’ve never really had any desire to be a number one,” admitted Edey. “So I was concerned that we’d not perform as well with Seb missing, everybody knows that he’s the manager.
“But the first half went really well and we were comfortable at 1-0 at half-time. It was a funny one, really. I was happy with how we’d played and the lads were very chilled. We were so dominant.
“On the other hand, we knew they’d get a bit of a rollocking and would be better in the second half.
“And so it proved – we were quite lazy in the second half and just didn’t match the same desire and work-ethic we had in the first half.
“As the game went on, I began to feel that, if Harborough equalised, they might go on and win it.
“But their goal seemed to wake us up and fortunately Charley came up with a late winner. Going top is a big moment – I remember that we nearly fell 15 points behind Newport Pagnell in December.
“Now we’re one of five or six sides that can win it.
“It’s very, very close at the top, the lads just need to believe that we can go on and win the title.”
Tigers: Drury, Griffiths, A Jackson, N Jackson, Braithwaite, Tinkler (Bird), Brooks, Avis, Smith, Zuerner (Sanders), Leckie.
