Spalding United Reserves recorded back-to-back wins with Saturday’s 3-1 defeat of Baston in ChromaSport Peterborough League Division One.
Goals from Jamie Cartlidge, Matthew Cannon and Mark Lovelace, along with heroics from keeper Ashley Elderkin did the trick.
Cartlidge latched on to an excellent through ball from Adam Braybrook and cooly slotted the ball low into the left corner of the goal to open the scoring inside ten minutes.
Not long after, it was 2-0. Matty Rose and Robbie Relf combined well down the left and Relf crossed to the back post where Cannon thumped the ball into the roof of the net.
Baston did pull one back on the half hour through Grey Rawlinson, bur Lovelace reinstated the Tulips’ two-goal lead by diverting Cartlidge’s misplaced shot.
In the second half, hit with injuries, Spalding’s tempo slowed and they faced a barrage of attacks from the visitors.
On the four or five occasions Baston did break through a resilient defence, man of the match Elderkin pulled off some fantastic saves, two of which were clawed out of the top corner.
Relf cleared an effort off the line and Baston also hit the bar.
Spalding skipper Dave Endersbee said: “We had to work hard in the second half and it was backs to the wall at times, but we got the three points as a reward for how we organised ourselves and how well we played in the first half.”
Tulips Res: Elderkin, Endersbee (c), Haw, Rose, Cannon, Nottingham (Mroczka), McKue, Relf (Nicholls), Lovelace, Braybrook (Phillips), Cartlidge.
* A stunning Cartlidge winner got the Tulips’ first three points of the season last Wednesday night.
Early pressure by Stamford Lions (formerly Ryhall United) was rewarded when Ryan Brown beat the offside trip and rounded Elderkin.
Lovelace equalised and with 20 minutes to go Cartlidge chased and won a long ball into the corner, held off two defenders and fired home from an acute angle from just inside the penalty box.
