Renishaw Rangers 0-3 Newark Town

The gap between the Blues and their nearest rivals Dinnington Town stretched to twelve points after a comfortable win against fourth placed Renishaw Rangers on Saturday. While their rivals have four games in hand, Town have the points in the bag plus a vastly superior goal difference.

Newark put out a strong side with new signing Jonny Wiles on the bench along with late arrival Lewis Chambers while there were starts for Daryl Price and Jack Durkin.

On a heavy pitch the early exchanges were even, Renishaw had the first chance, Wood shooting into the side netting. Town looked lively from the off with Price’s pace causing the Renishaw defence early problems. Newark had what appeared to be valid claims for a penalty as Danny Boulton was brought down in the area, but the appeals were waved away. Rhys Lewis then put Boulton through but his well-directed shot was punched clear by keeper Moore. The visitors took the lead in the 24th minute, as George Asplin advanced down the right before playing the ball into the area where Price hammered the ball into the roof of the net from an acute angle. Five minutes later, after Boulton had been hacked down on the edge of the area, an offence which didn’t apparently warrant a caution, Price fired home the resulting free kick, which took a deflection on its way past Moore to double the advantage. Nathan Burrows, who had been relatively untroubled in the Town goal was brought into action, first saving well from Ryan before diving bravely at the feet of Talbot as he broke clear. Price almost completed a hat trick as half time approached, Steve Carty’s cheeky backheel seeing Price’s shot curl narrowly wide of the post.
With Chambers replacing Boulton at the break, the sizable following of Newark support didn’t have to wait long for the important third goal as within a minute of the restart, Asplin, playing in an unfamiliar position on the right cut in and twisted his way past three defenders to place his shot across the keeper. Conceding again so early seemed to drain the home side and the Blues began to exert heavy pressure, Chambers going close as he fired inches over after Lewis’s initial shot had been blocked. Wiles replaced Price, immediately showing some nice touches as the visitors continued to press forward. Asplin again did well on the right to supply Chambers who was denied by a diving save from Moore. The Renishaw keeper then pulled of an outstanding one-handed save to keep out Braithwaite’s powerful header from a Carty free kick. Renishaw had their best chances to get on the scoresheet in the closing minutes, a miskicked clearance by Burrows falling to Wood whose inviting ball across the Town area was knocked wide of the post by Hicken. In the last minute Burrows, out of the action for long periods pulled off a great double save from Edridge and Hancock to preserve Town’s tenth clean sheet of the season.