Wymondham Town 1, Holt United 3THE Owls started their fifth consecutive away league match needing a win to maintain their spot at the top of Dolphin Autos Anglian Combination Division One.

Wymondham Town 1, Holt United 3

THE Owls started their fifth consecutive away league match needing a win to maintain their spot at the top of Dolphin Autos Anglian Combination Division One.

With Colm McGilway unavailable, manager Jim Blandford decided to start with Toby Blowers alongside Billy Edwards in attack. Philip Durham came back into the squad from injury and the only other absentee was Chris English, who was unwell.

Holt made the best possible start when, after only three minutes, the ball was played through to Edwards just inside the Wymondham half. He took on the entire home defence with a show of strength, skill and pace before slotting the ball home off the inside of a post for a memorable goal.

Ten minutes later Holt increased their lead. Following good build-up play the ball found Blowers in the box. Good control and a fine lay-off to Edwards allowed the latter to double his goal tally for the day.

Good work from Tom Graver on 25 minutes resulted in a free-kick being awarded to Holt 20 yards out. Skipper Kevin Moore drilled the kick into the bottom corner of the net to make the score 3-0.

The second half was, from Holt's point of view, an anti-climax. They found it difficult to get back into the rhythm of the first half and Wymondham pulled a goal back just before the hour mark when. After an attack down their right, the ball was lobbed over keeper Justyn Goff into the goal.

Goff gave, as he has all season, confidence to the defence and with Gavin Neale and James Medlar in front of him Holt looked very sound at the back.

Philip Durham and Daniel Peczkwoski replaced Graver and Blowers for the last half-hour. An injury to Steven Thompson led to veteran Robin Thaxter replacing him, adding to his massive appearance tally for the club.

The excellent goals in the first half held the key to the deserved victory in another excellent team performance in which the ageless Jason Hawkins and Edwards stood out.