Tired Worksop Town dig deep for win over Pontefract Collieries

It was a poor start from the Tigers, who gifted the Colls the lead on seven minutes when Gavin Allott was the recipient of a rare misplaced pass by Terry Hawkridge and he squared the ball to his strike partner Joe Lumsden, who finished past Sebastian Malkowski.

They then equalised on the half-hour mark from the penalty spot after Harry Spratt handled Aleks Starcenko’s cross just inside the area. Liam Hughes stepped up and rifled home his 23rd goal of the campaign.

The Tigers went ahead on the stroke of half-time when Vaughan Redford, who netted over 40 goals in three years for Pontefract, poked home from a sublime Sam Wedgbury delivery.

Redford then got his second on 52 minutes as he volleyed home from Hughes’ scooped over-the-top pass.

Lumsden pulled a goal back on 66 minutes when he pounced on Seb Malkowski’s spill from a deflected effort from Adam Priestley, but the forward scuppered his side’s chances of getting a point when he cynically brought down Hawkridge to receive a second yellow card with eight minutes remaining.

“It was a tired performance from us,” said Parry.

“After the first 10 minutes I felt pretty worried for us because we looked like we had no energy or fuel left in the tank, but they bounced back from going behind and took control of the game from then on. It was a good win against the most difficult side that we have faced this year.

“We have come from behind to win a few times this season and we have some unbelievable characters in that dressing room, so we didn’t panic, and we kept doing what we were trying to do and play in the right areas by exploiting the wings.”

The Tigers have their first free midweek since October due to the backlog of fixtures after success in the FA Cup and FA Trophy this season.

Parry explained how he is planning to give his side some much-needed time off the field ahead of Saturday's long trip to Consett AFC in the North East.

“My focus is on giving these lads a full rest with having the week off and I think it will do us better to come here instead and do a little bit of a team bonding to recharge,” he added.

“On Tuesday, we’re going to fill the dressing room with massage tables and try and get people ready for Saturday and we will have some food together.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​