The Greens can now no longer finish below 6th in Premier Division North and in the process have set three new club records at this level - for highest ever finish, highest tally of wins and finally, highest points total. It achieves some of the aims the Greens set out at the beginning of the campaign but with five games still to play, the Greens have an inter-step play-off with a step four side in their sights, and a possible Knockout Cup Final date with either Deeping Rangers or March Town. Saturday’s contest in Nottinghamshire took a little while to spark and it wasn’t until the Greens opened the scoring in the 19th minute – when Akeel Francis expertly crossed for Ryan Rushen to head home – that the game had it’s first real, clear-cut chance. The Greens doubled their advantage just seven minutes later when Jacob Fenton crossed for Player/Manager Tom Ward to smash home from close range, thus registering his first goal of the campaign. The Greens rounded off the scoring late on after a period of pressure from the hosts when Rodrigo Goncalves broke free of his defender and placed a fine finish beyond Jake Laban in the Kimberley goal to put the result beyond doubt.

Player/Manager Tom Ward had the luxury of a near fully fit squad to choose from on Saturday afternoon and took the opportunity to shuffle the pack ahead of a busy period of three games in six days this week. Three changes in total were made from the side that comfortably dispatched Belper United 4-0 in midweek with Mitch Griffiths, Rodrigo Goncalves and Joe Butler all dropping out of the starting line-up and they were replaced by Ryan Flitton, Ryan Rushen and Jacob Fenton who all returned from appearances from the bench in midweek. The hosts meanwhile were comfortable 5-0 victors over Selston FC themselves in midweek and made just two changes to that side with Phil Jauch and Jordan Wheatley coming in to replace Dan Davy, who dropped to the bench and Tom Hilton, who dropped out of the squad altogether.

The game took a little while to find a spark on a bobbly pitch at the Stag Ground and Jacob Fenton’s powerful effort was easily caught by Jake Laban - the only real opportunity of note for either side during a quite opening quarter of an hour. It was no surprise then that the Greens took a 19th minute lead with the first moment of real quality when Akeel Francis delivered a stunning ball for Ryan Rushen to nod home and the Greens never really looked back.

Fenton was back involved again a few moments later when he set up Joe Smith to shoot just beyond the post, before the same fate befell Finlay Armond, who could only scuff wide after finding space in the area. The Greens dominance was punctured in places by a dangerous Kimberley side - and they fired a warning shot just a few minutes later when Liam Flitton was required to pull off an unbelievable save to prevent Nathan Banton from hauling the hosts level. That save proved pivotal and just a minute later the Greens were up the other end and doubling their advantage when Jacob Fenton crossed for Player/Manager Tom Ward to smash home from close range – and register his first goal of the season in the process.

The hosts were by no means out of the contest though and were unlucky not to find themselves back in it seven minutes short of the break when Tom Eccleshall broke free down the left and forced Flitton into another stunning save at close range, before Joe Braithwaite was on hand to head the goal-bound rebound over the crossbar. There was still time though for the Greens to generate another golden opportunity of their own when fine work from Ryan Rushen saw him steal the ball and set up Akeel Francis who saw his effort excellently pushed away by Laban with the goal at his mercy.

The second half proved a little more fruitful for the hosts in terms of possession but there was, overall, very little goalmouth action to speak off, particularly during a first 25 minutes where the Greens intentions were to nullify any prospective comeback from the Miners. Liam Flitton was twice called into action, though less spectacularly than during the first half, when he first collected Eccleshall’s powerful drive before he was then on hand to scoop up James Shaw’s tame effort.

The Greens themselves had generated a good opening of their own when Akeel Francis found space but saw his audacious outside-of-the-boot effort collected by Laban, before the visitors finally killed the contest in the 83rd minute. It was substitute Rodrigo Goncalves who picked the ball up well inside his own half before driving frantically at a tiring Kimberley defence, beating two men before accelerating away and comfortably slotting past Laban to cap off a fantastic individual effort and wrap up three, record-breaking points for the Greens.

It was, of course, the Greens record breaking exploits on Saturday that garnered the most attention, but Assistant Manager Louis Bland insisted the Greens are nowhere near done.

“I know the Chairman is very happy but I don’t think this is finished. There’s an opportunity to finish even higher and there’s an opportunity to get in that play-off spot and hopefully a cup final as well, so there’s a lot more to come.”

Aside from those achievements, there was also a fine performance to discuss too, and Bland was more than impressed with how the Greens applied themselves in Nottinghamshire.

“We were really good. We came up with a gameplan and it pretty much went down to a tee. I felt that with a game Monday and another game Wednesday, if we’d gone out and pressed and been aggressive then those games may have become difficult - so we felt that if we just sat in [at 2-0] we had bodies on the bench - and they killed it at the end.”

Bland was also pleased with how the Greens went about nullifying the threat of the leagues top scorer James Shaw who was limited to scraps all afternoon.

“We knew that he’s scored a lot of goals so we tried to nullify his threat. We tried to make him go wide of us and resort to crosses in the box - and when you’ve got Tom Ward and Joe Braithwaite as your centre-halves they shouldn’t get beaten in the air, and they didn’t.”

Part two of the Greens Easter weekend schedule commences when Pinchbeck United visit The Longwater Stadium this afternoon, kick-off is at 3PM.

Words: Oliver Atkin