Linby, the league’s second placed team, travelled away to face Graham St Prims, who were third in the table, at the Fireology Fred Harding Ground.
It was at this ground in April, where Linby suffered their heaviest defeat of last season, a truly humbling 7-1 loss.
Linby manager Jonathan Wass, was without the services of Ethan Fells, away, Spencer Pollitt and Jack Smith, both carrying injuries.
Like last season, when Linby lost their goalkeeper Will Wass that day through injury, on 20 minutes Jack Walker dived bravely at the feet of Prims striker Pharrell White, and sustained a knock on the head. No fault of the Prims striker and luckily, Walker recovered to carry on and again put in a solid performance.
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In a tight, competitive first half there were few chances: Liam Cartledge had the ball in the
Prims net only to see it ruled out for an earlier foul and the home team wasted two chances late in the half.
The deadlock was broken on 53 minutes when a good interchange between Corey Wood and Mason Moore resulted in a chance for Cartledge. The live wire striker cut inside his man and drilled a perfect low drive into the opposite bottom corner of the net to beat Prims keeper Jack Morley.
62 minutes and Linby scored a second goal, Greg Conn and Paddy Stefaniak combined to send Moore away down the right. His fierce cross shot looked to be heading into the net, but was diverted in by a Prims defender.
On 65 minutes Oscar Trigg pulled off a tremendous last ditch tackle to deny White a clear chance as Linby dug in to preserve their clean sheet.
White fired just over the bar 10 minutes later.
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On 78 minutes Conn reacted the quickest to a deep cross to the far post , from Wood, heading the ball past Morley for what Linby thought was a third, only to be ruled offside.
Linby held on comfortably in the end to collect all three points and stay second in the Central Mids Prem South table and collect a fifth clean sheet of the season.
LINE-UP: Walker, Conn, Turner, J.Wass, Trigg, Wood, Gibson, Stefaniak, Moore, Tassi, Cartledge
SUBS: Bernard (for Trigg 66mins), R.Smith (for Tassi 75mins), Hamilton (for Moore 80 mins)
Man of the Match . Paddy Stefaniak
