Last night we hosted Mansfield Hosiery Mills down The Lane in our final home game of the season in what was a must win if we wanted to continue our title charge.

First half saw both sides create a couple of chances but nothing too clear cut. The Shiners started well with clear intensity to our play with a few half chances missed by Archie, Brighty & Dev but we were unable to find a break through. Mills hit the bar from a cross & what looked like a header which was certainly a wake up call for everyone. We unfortunately lost Nat Clarke to injury early in the first half so it was an early introduction for Josh Jackson at full back. Both sides went in level at the break with Mills definitely happier of the two sides who were clearly sticking to a game plan which was emphasised by their manager Mark Turner after the game in his interview with The Central Midlands.

Second half the lads got straight to business with Normo's #9 Archie Brown gambling on a ball back to the Mills keeper who couldn't clear his lines with the ball falling to Archie who smashes into an empty net to put us 1-0 up.Almost immediately after the lads were on the attack again with Dev on the right wing whipping a ball into the middle to Perry who does his trademark turn & finish burying it in the bottom right corner. The 3rd goal of the night came from a Devereux cross again with Eden Homer leaping highest to win the header & put the ball in the net. Dev himself finally got his goal putting us 4 to the good & securing the 3 points & promotion. Our 100th goal of the season was ironically scored by the clubs top scorer this season with Sam Kelly coming back from his leg break earlier in the season, he grabs his 20th of the season topping off an excellent second half performance.

MOTM on the night was Josh Devereux for his goal & 3 assists. Thank you to Debbie & Kev as always.

The win last night finally secured us promotion back to The United Counties League Division 1 (Step 6) for next season. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though as we do have 1 game left this season as we travel to 3rd place Linby Colliery Tuesday night in our bid to win the league title. A win would see us crowned champions on the night, a draw would see us more then likely be crowned champions come May as that would mean Melbourne Dynamo would have to win their last 5 games scoring 43 goals which let's be honest, isn't going to happen. A loss however would mean we would need Melbourne to draw or lose at least one of their last 5... they do have some tricky fixtures to be fair with them needing to play Linby twice & Cromford away but we can't be relying on anyone else we will be looking to seal our own fate on the night!

Thanks to all who attended last night your support was excellent & we hope to see plenty of you at Linby Tuesday to hopefully celebrate being champions!!!

#COYS #Shiners #ClubOnTheUp