Melbourn 4 Wisbech St Mary 3

MELBOURN continued their winning streak with victory over high-flying Wisbech St Mary on Saturday.

The home side again showed they can not only live with, but beat, the better teams in this division and when Kris Watters had a header cleared off the line in the opening minutes Melbourn looked confident.

After only 10 minutes, Melbourn took the lead through a fine individual goal by Ali Oglvie. The right-back won the ball on the halfway line and ran towards the heart of the defence. The central defenders failed to stop Oglvie and, having run into the box, he powered through the ‘keeper’s challenge and from a tight angle smashed a left-foot shot into the top corner.

Melbourn failed to keep the lead for long and a deep cross from the left alluded everyone, including home ‘keeper Ferrari and the ball found the top corner.

Melbourn continued to push and when Jason Gray slide a ball into the box with 10 to go of the half the away defender handled and Ben Fox, revelling in a more advanced forward position, smashed home the penalty.

Melbourn deservedly led at the half and came out in the second half determined to add to their score. Fox was particularly instrumental in the second half and his willingness to chase the balls across defence paid dividends as he hassled the centre back into a mistake and with the ‘keeper advancing intuitively poked the ball over him for Melbourn’s third.

The visitors started to show their form however, and continued to press, always looking vulnerable to a counter-attack. Melbourn’s grit in defending has been shown over recent weeks and again they dealt with most that was thrown at them. Midway through the half and the visitors pulled one back, a neat header alluded the poorly positioned Ferrari and as he scrambled a save he could only push the ball into the path of the away forward who finished.

Melbourn hit straight back and a stinging counter-attack saw Fox race clear with the away defender clinging to his shorts. It is a credit to Fox that his intent was on goal rather than gamesmanship and he eventually shrugged the defender. However, with ‘keeper on top of him, Fox neatly laid back to substitute Chaz Hassan who stroked home.

The visitors reshuffled and with a more attacking formation Melbourn found themselves on the back foot and with five to go Andrew Morris nudged an advancing midfielder over and the penalty scored, Melbourn had to ride out a nervous closing five minutes.

Survive they did, though, and despite their league position find themselves just five points of second place and in with a chance of promotion.

Melbourn: Ferrari, Oglvie (Hassan), Patman, Staley, Monahan, Morris, J Gray, A Gray, Wagstaff, Watters, Fox.