WELLINGBOROUGH TOWN 1
HOLBEACH UTD 3
In-form Holbeach United made it 12 wins from 13 games in all competitions with a fine 3-1 victory at Wellingborough Town on Tuesday night.
A second-minute penalty from Joe Smith and Mitch Griffiths’ cracking effort put them in command midway through the first half of the ChromaSport UCL Premier Division clash at the Dog and Duck.
George Zuerner also hit the bar as the Tigers threatened to run riot, only for Mark Pryor to pull one back for Wellingborough from the spot just before the break.
However, Dan Dougill’s 53rd-minute header ensured that Holbeach picked up their ninth win from 12 league games this season, which moves them up to eighth – ten points behind leaders Leicester Nirvana with three games in hand.
The only sour note for boss Seb Hayes were a hamstring problem picked up by skipper Nick Jackson and a worrying heart scare for Luke Avis, who was hospitalised as a precaution.
Hayes said: “We were absolutely outstanding for the first half an hour and probably should have been four or five up.
“But we didn’t take our chances and we gave away a ridiculous penalty to let them back into a game that had no real right to be in.
“It became a bit of a scrap after that, which really played into their hands.
“Thankfully, we got the third goal – which killed them off. Ricky Drury didn’t have a save to make all night, so it’s a real shame that we weren’t able to keep our run of clean sheets going.
“12 wins from 13 games is great, though. I’m not about to start making statements about the title.
“What I will say is that it’s wide open this season – somebody could end up losing six or seven games and still winning the league.
“We’ll just carry on proving people wrong and we’ll see where we are in three or four weeks.
“What has made this run even more remarkable is that we’ve had constant suspensions and injuries.
“I think it’s pulled the group closer together as we’ve been up against it, but we’re looking very thin on the ground ahead of two big games.”
Holbeach now move onto two huge games in their league season as they visit table-topping Leicester Nirvana on Saturday (3pm) and host Eynesbury Rovers on Wednesday (7.45pm).
Tigers: Drury, Harker, Jackson (Warfield), Tinkler, Braithwaite, Dougill, Griffiths, Zuerner (Leckie), Smith, Bird, Davies.
