A ‘spring’ afternoon and a crowd of 139 witnessed the ‘Scholars’ secure another three points in their push for promotion.

The ‘Scholars’ nearly had the perfect start when Ben Ward-Cochrane closed down their keeper and the clearance went straight up in the air giving the keeper time to recover to parry the shot from Ben. It was Ben again who turned a defender but shot over the bar.

The home side continued to push forward - George Nicholas shot over, Sandro Costa Dias Fernandes cut in from the left but shot straight at the keeper and then Chris Doyle let fly from the right of the box beating the keeper but also the far left hand post.

The home side - through Sando Costa D.F. - forced some free kicks from the left - the first taken by Michael Murray saw a header from Steve Brown blocked on the line and the follow up from James Budden was saved by the keeper, then second free kick taken by Michael Murray was again meet by Steve Brown and the ball bounced loose to Ben Ward-Cochrane to turn and fire home on 37 mins.

Lee O’Leary and Ben Ward-Cochrane then exchanged passes but the shot from Ben hit the side netting.

Half time arrived with the home side deservedly in the lead but only having one goal to show for their domination.

The visitors saw more of the ball in the opening fifteen minutes of the second half but the ’Scholars’ defence was its usual solid and commanding self - ably lead by Steve Brown and James Budden who cancelled out any threat down the middle and the full backs of Chris Doyle and Andy Lomas commanding in their own way with Will Wambeek tucking in front of the back four.

George Nicholas and Sandro Costas D.F. were creating space on the wings and Michael Murray was linking well to create the openings.

In fact the visiting keeper kept his team in the game - on three occasions thwarting first George Nicholas then Sandro Costa D.F. and then Ben Ward-Cochrane pushing each of their firmly struck efforts over the bar.

In the last few minutes sub Jordan Lawal turned well to then shoot wide, then looked to chip the keeper but cleared the bar.

Berkley Laurencin was not forced into any real save and comfortably dealt with anything that came into the box.

Another impressive team performance that secured a fifth successive win - eight games to go...

Team: Berkley Laurencin, Christopher Doyle, Andrew Lomas, Lee O'Leary, Steve Brown, James Budden, George Nicholas, William Wambeek (Billy Adcock 77 mins), Michael Murray (Jordan Lawal 89 mins), Ben Ward-Cochrane,(Ryan Forde 81 mins), Sandro Costa Dias Fernandes

Unused Substitutes: Sean Grace, Femi Ogunsola

Man of the Match: James Budden - commanding at the back

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