Five-star performance from Sidley

"It wasn't a must-win game," said manager Andy Laskey, "but it was a game where we needed three points so they were a bit apprehensive. But we matched them physically and I thought we were better footballers and that told in the end."

As well as the three points, another source of satisfaction for Laskey came from keeping a clean sheet for just the second time in the league this season. Ironically, both shut-outs have arisen from the two games in which Allan Parker-Read has kept goal.

"The main thing for us was to keep a clean sheet," Laskey continued. "I would rather have won 5-0 than 7-2 or anything like that and I think it was more pleasing than scoring five. Defensively it started with the front two putting them under pressure and Matt Dadswell (playing a one-off match during a brief return from university to celebrate his 22nd birthday) was spoiling all the time in midfield.

"We had to change the team throughout the game (Kevin Rose started in central-defence, but went up-front in the second half due to Steve Morris' injury at which stage Lee Wood slotted into the backline) and it was nice that people were able to slot into different positions to help the team."

When Rose went off as the game began to get feisty during the second period, young Callum Wooller came on to score one and set-up two goals for Dave Ward with his first three touches as Sidley cut loose in the final 10 minutes. The three goals they scored in that brief period took their tally of strikes from the 80th minute onwards to an incredible 18 in the league this season and 21 in all.

Long before that, Adie Kettyles notched for the second straight game with a shot-on-the-turn in the ninth minute before Graham Morris converted a 49th minute penalty after a foul on Rose.