Pinchbeck United will make a little bit of club history this weekend as they play in the First Round proper of the FA Vase for the first time.
After seeing off local rivals Holbeach United and Deeping Rangers in the qualifying rounds, they travel to Mansfield to face Sherwood Colliery in the furthest they’ve got in the competition.
The sides have yet to meet in the league as Sherwood sit fifth in the Uhlsport United Counties League Premier Division North table compared with 13th placed Pinchbeck.
But the Knights will go into it buoyed by Saturday’s victory against then table toppers Melton Town, despite Tuesday’s night’s blip of a 2-0 defeat at Leicester Nirvana.
The victory over Melton, only the second defeat and third time that side had dropped points, was a brilliant performance by Pinchbeck against a side who had won four in a row.
The Knights took the lead through Andrew Williams who curled a stunning right foot effort from outside the area past the Melton keeper for a 42nd minute lead.
Williams looked lively throughout as did Avi Vieira who doubled his side’s advantage 15 minutes into the second period, latching on to a long ball and firing home.
Melton upped the pressure and with 20 minutes left halved the deficit as Sam Muggleton headed home one of a series of corners.
But manager Lewis Thorogood would have been delighted with his side’s defending as they kept the visitors at arm’s length and saw out an impressive 2-1 win that knocked Melton off the top of the table.
Thorogood said he was “very proud” of his side.
“We dug deep against a very good Melton side.
“After a bad seven days when confidence was wavering we responded and showed everyone what we can do.”
Thorogood said it was a “patched up” Knights that were unable to build on the win on Tuesday night though as they lost at Leicester Nirvana.
They were without Spencer Weir-Daley who suffered a shoulder injury but gave a debut to Bailey Dilley who joined the club from Boston Town.
In a game of few chances second half goals from Daniel Odunaiya in the 68th minute latching on to a ball through the middle and Joshua Nwokoro’s tap in following a ball from the left ten minutes later sealed the win for Nirvana who moved above Pinchbeck in the table.
