Away win at Dronfield Town keeps Shirebrook Town top of the table

After having back to back to back games against the teams just above or below them, things didn’t get any easier for Shirebrook as they headed to ninth-placed Dronfield.

While Shirebrook needed a win to keep up the pressure on the teams around them, the hosts still had an outside hope of claiming the last play-off place.

So both sides were eager to get the three points.

Shirebrook manager Stephen Bodle said: “This is the best I’ve felt over the last few weeks in terms of the overall performance.

“Not because we haven’t been good the last few weeks, we have, but we’ve come without our captain and most influential player today to a difficult away game and it was a great team performance.

“Dronfield are a good side. They're committed, they’ll work hard and stick to a plan and we knew they’d be difficult to break down in the second half. I thought we were well worth the three points today.”

Shirebrook opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Igor Mlynarski swung the ball in from the right and Dronfield keeper Ryhs Hudson made a right mess of the cross, allowing the ball to go through his hands and leaving Danny South the simple task to tap into the net.

Despite the early setback, Dronfield responded well and Connor Chapell and Callum Mawbey went close for the home side.

As the game was heading towards half-time Shirebrook went close to extending their lead, both chances falling to Kieren Watson who saw his first effort deflected for a corner and his second saved by the Dronfield keeper.

Anthony Dwyer also went close for Shirebrook but fired into the side netting.

Instead, in first half injury time, Shirebrook's 712 minute run without conceding came to an end as Dronfield levelled when the ball was played to Callum Mawbey and he unleashed a left footed shot from 25 yards that found the bottom corner.After the break Anthony Dwyer and Kieren Watson had chances, but the home side were showing attacking intent of their own and Max Rhodes was played through one on one with Owen Evans, only to see Brad McGowan produced a stunning tackle to dispossess him just as he got into the box.

With the game in the balance, Shirebrook turned to the bench with the introduction of Rio Allan and Brad Kerr and in the 77th minute thought they had retaken the lead when Kerr headed in Allan's cross, but the offside flag was up to stop the celebrations.

However, a minute later Shirebrook did retake the lead when Kieren Watson sent Brad Kerr racing away one on one with the Dronfield keeper, and he made no mistake in finding the bottom corner.

Shirebrook had chances to extend the lead in the final 10 minutes with both Carlton Carty and Rio Allan going close.

As the game went into the final five minutes Dronfield started to throw men forward and almost got their reward in injury time as Owen Evans produced a stunning save to keep out James Lindores' overhead kick.