A hard working and gritty display produced the much needed win for Nuneaton on a day where the result was a lot more important than the performance. An own goal ten minutes into the second half courtesy of Alfreton skipper Tony Butler was enough to settle it, but without this stroke of luck Boro may have been lamenting a lack of firepower up front.

With Jordan Stepien missing the game through injury, and top scorer Andy Brown being forced to leave the field after a bad challenge during the first half, the attacking ranks were severely weakened. Manager Kevin Wilkin decided to replace Brown with midfielder Mark Noon, and move jack of all trades Matty Collins forward to support Alex Rodman in attack. This was an interesting move, especially with recognised striker Danny Williams sitting on the bench.

Rumours around Liberty Way on Saturday suggested that Williams, scorer of six goals this term, had recently confronted Wilkin after growing far from happy at his lack of first team starts. Whether this was any reason for the change or not, Noon made a good impression and Boro did enough to secure the win despite looking less than a potent threat going forward.

Left back Connor Franklin was sent off late in the game for what appeared to be a stamp, hopefully the following suspension won’t disrupt the backline too much with the critical trip to Harrogate Town coming up on Saturday. On the plus side, new signing Rob Taylor made his league debut for the club as a sub, and may well be the man to replace Franklin when the ban comes through.

All in all, despite looking far from convincing Boro got the three points desperatley needed to keep their play off charge ticking over. Two games in a week away from Liberty Way will test the mettle of the squad though, where bigger and better performances will be needed to get anything from them.

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