The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Leverington Sports 1
Pinchbeck United 4
Ian Dunn praised his hard-working Pinchbeck United side after they made it 15 ChromaSport PDFL Premier Division wins on the bounce on Saturday.
Yet another hat-trick from top scorer Ollie Maltby, who now has 49 goals for the season, plus a Tyler Wright strike steered second-placed Pinchbeck to a 4-1 success at Leverington Sports.
The win means that it’s as you were at the top, with leaders Peterborough Sports Reserves still four points clear of The Knights in the race for the title.
Player/boss Dunn – who injured his hamstring after just two minutes and could now miss the rest of the season – felt it was much more than just a routine win for his side.
He has praised his Pinchbeck players for going the extra mile out on the pitch and feels they are perfectly positioned to finish the season in style.
“People will look at the scoreline and write it off as an easy win,” said the veteran former Spalding United and Holbeach United striker. “But we didn’t get our third and fourth goals until quite late on.
“We created a lot of chances and probably should have made life easier for ourselves, it was total domination at times.
“To be honest, they scored from their only shot – and at times they got quite excited when they got into our half!
“But that’s all down to the workrate and attitude my lads showed on the day.
“That is the side of the game most people don’t see.
“But if you don’t put it in, you’ll not get the results. We worked our socks off and deserved to win the game.
“Nothing has really changed for us, we’re still behind Peterborough Sports and have both Netherton and Moulton Harrox hot on our heels.
“We’ve got Netherton coming up and also have Sports to play, so there’s still plenty of time to go.
“If we continue to work hard and score so many goals, we’ll be in the mix right until the end of the season.”
The league’s leading scorer Maltby gave Pinchbeck the lead at Church Road, but a slack pass allowed Mariusz Kudyba to level for Leverington before the break.
It was 2-1 on 47 minutes thanks to that man Maltby, but he had to wait until the 87th minute to round off his treble.
Three minutes later it was midfield maestro Wright who completed the scoring, as Pinchbeck extended their remarkable winning run (which does include one void match against Wisbech Town Reserves).
There was more good news for the Knights, with skipper Nick Bishop making his return from injury as a 75th-minute substitute.
Brad Murrell enjoyed an hour as an emergency striker after replacing Dunn early on, while Liam Ogden also got 30 minutes as a second-half sub.
Pinchbeck next host title rivals Netherton United at Knight Street this Saturday (2pm) with all three expected to feature.
Pinchbeck: Martin, Gordan, Gardner, Brooks, Lawe (Bishop 75), Edwards, Shipley, Wright, Panton, Dunn (B Murrell 2, Ogden 62), Maltby. Not used: Vince, Ross.
