Early goal tonic against Ashton United sees Worksop Town bounce back from last week's Marine misery

Jay Rollins’ second-minute header was enough to split the two sides as the Tigers bounced back from a disappointing defeat to Marine AFC, who scored two goals late into the game after Regan Hutchinson’s early goal.

And Parry was pleased his Worksop’s character shown.

“It was a scrappy game, but we did enough to win it,” he said. “Last week we put everything on the line, and we didn’t deserve to come away with a loss in the circumstances that we did.

“It’s been a hard week trying to lift the players, but we saw them pick themselves up and that togetherness got us through this game.

“We put our bodies on the line, and we did the right things, and it was a good performance to get three points.

“We knew that Ashton were a good side and we couldn’t let them play, so we tried to press high and throw a lot of bodies forward and we did that spot on.

“If I am being critical, we’ve had several chances that we should have scored and taken the game away from them, but it’s a good win against a side that will be challenging at the end of the season.

“Scoring early relieved the pressure around the ground and we were doing that at the beginning of the season and starting with a high tempo and high energy and getting our noses in front because it puts the opposition on the back foot, and we did that today.”

The Tigers welcome Radcliffe FC, who sit 11 points clear of second, to Sandy Lane on Saturday afternoon.

Worksop suffered an entertaining 4-3 loss in the reverse fixture, with Liam Hughes netting a brace and Vaughan Redford grabbing the other goal.

With the fixture promising to be a classic, Parry says his side will be putting the pressure on their opponents.

“They’re the runaway leaders for a reason,” added Parry. “When we played them at their place, they showed why they are one of the best teams in the league.

“They are well-managed, well-built, and we have had them watched plenty of times and it’ll be a really tough game.

“With today’s result, they are beatable, and we’ll be throwing everything at them because, like us, they are a very attacking team.

“After it was 4-3 at their place, I’d suggest for people to come down as I predict a lot of goals.”