Christian Fox’s Selby Town heroes narrowly the gap on leaders Winterton Rangers to five points after a superb midweek 4-1 away win at Parkgate.
With Parkgate shocking the league by winning at title favourites Skegness Town on Saturday, it could be argued that Selby’s victory is their most impressive of the Toolstation NCEL Division One season so far.
Fox, January’s Division One manager of the match with five wins out of five, has clearly steered Selby towards their best ever chance of returning to the NCEL top flight for the first time since 2012.
Selby took a gamble in 2017 when appointing then-rookie boss Fox, whose only managerial experience was with Poppleton, but their shot for the moon has hit terra firma.
Swash-buckling football has attracted unprecedented crowds, but Selby can battle it out as well and that showed in the win at Parkgate. Brandon Bagley had capitalised on a slip to place Parkgate in front after just six minutes.
But the panic alarms were not sounding as Liam Flanagan closed further in 100 goals for Selby after the home side failed to clear.
Once as Carl Stewart converted a penalty on the hour mark, Selby killed off their hosts with a further two goals in ten minutes. Brett Lucas’ free header added the third and Luke Sellers sealed the win soon after.
Rossington Main shocked Hallam by winning 2-0 at Sandygate on Tuesday night. Niall Doran’s penalty and Zeph Thomas’ late goal won it for Main. Hallam finished with eight men as Jordan Turner was sent off in the first half and two players – Sam Smith and Tyler Bradley – were still in the sin bin when the final whistle was blown. Tom Wilson was also sin-binned midway through the second half.
Brody Robertson, on his debut, and Andrew Taylor guided North Ferriby to a 2-0 win over Swallownest.