3 POINTS AT HOME AGAINST RUSHALL OLYMPIC

Needham Market kept the pressure on Radcliffe with an important 1-0 home win over Rushall Olympic.

In a tentative start to the game, which saw Rushall have more of the possession in the opening then minutes, the only major chance of note saw Josh Blunkell smartly smother away a low close range shot from an offside position.

Needham meanwhile had a good spell of possession of their own as Luke Ingram's exquisite cross just evaded Tommy Smith running in at close range on 29 minutes.

The first half continued to be a stalemate, as both sides enjoyed good spells of possession in the last ten minutes.

Kyle Hammond exploited space to shoot on the edge of the box but for Nathan Cameron to block the shot behind on 36 minutes, while the hosts flashed a low shot narrowly wide a minute later.

While Jamie McGrath headed Kyle Hammond's cross just wide of the bottom far corner on 45 minutes, Josh Blunkell was alert to dive across to beat away a low shot in first half stoppage time.

Blunkell was called into action four minutes after the restart, smartly holding Theo Williams' low shot.

Tevan Allen's 50th minute dangerous low cross was crucially turned just wide for a corner, before the midfielder's 57th minute shot from Ingram's cutback was blocked by Forde.

The Marketmen broke the deadlock two minutes later as Jake Dye's excellent cross was effortlessly headed home into the bottom far corner by Luke Ingram.

Needham remained in the ascendency, as Allen's low cross saw McGrath's back heel seemingly deflected wide, although a goal kick was given.

Wodskou then saw a 71st minute low shot deflected vitally wide, while the Pics headed a left wing over from point blank range.

Goalscorer Luke Ingram discusses Saturday's home win over Rushall, the season so far, and the remaining 3 league games.

DK: A very important three points today.

LI: Yeah, I mean it'd be nice if we'd have got three points since the other couple of home games and kept it a bit more interesting but yeah it's nice to get a win and just that's all you can do at the minute, just keep on trying to win games, boost morale.

DK: Yeah, the unfortunate part about today with Radcliffe drawing is the fact that we're now relying on them losing which is not what you want.

LI: No, I think once we lost their two home games last week I think you sort of knew it was going to be an uphill battle and they've gone and beat Scunthorpe so fair play to them, anyone beats Scunthorpe probably does deserve to stay up so here's what it is, we'll just keep fighting and hopefully there might be some magic reprieve from the league but obviously we're hoping for a snooker or two, we'll see what happens.

DK: But taking that out of the equation it was a well-deserved victory.

LI: Yeah, tough game, balls bouncing around a lot, terrible first half to watch probably but we've just battled hard and that's all you can do at this time of season, you find out your characters, see who's really wanting to dig in and who's not so I think everyone to a man was all in today.

DK: And our record against Rushall in the league below wasn't the greatest so it was good to kind of break that.

LI: Yeah, they're always a difficult team to play against, I've never ever played against a bad Rushall team so yeah it's one of them, just send them home with no points, unlucky you know, people do it to us so let's do it to someone else.

DK: And it was your goal that obviously decided was the difference between the two sides today a well-taken header?

LI: Yeah, great cross from Jake Dye, that's probably a good move and got my head on it and good job I had suncream on because I might not have gone in if I didn't but yeah it's nice to get a header, nice to get a goal from open play, I sort of haven't really contributed enough this year so yeah, no time like the present I guess.

DK: And like you said before, regardless of what happens it's a good confidence booster for the last three games?

LI: Yeah, I mean even if we are relegated like you've got Peterborough Sports away, it'll be a tough game and it's a good game Kings Lynn at home like whether there's anything on it or not it's still a good game so and then obviously the long trip's done in the last game so just like today just go in give up your effort and enjoy it like Needham Market in the National League North if you can't enjoy this then you might as well just pack it in.

DK: Yeah, we've spoken about it so many times over the last year that before it became a reality that we were going to go up no one expected it so we've just like said enjoyed it really.

LI: Yeah, I mean people obviously you get promoted, people's expectations change but if you actually look at the facts we've probably got the lowest budget in the league, one of them, we've probably got in the lower half end of the table budget in the league below so like as much as we wanted to stay up and we're desperate to stay up like let's just remember we are still punching more and more of our way.

The club's doing all they can to catch up and all we can do if we go down mount a good push to come back up make it another great season and if we smirack and see something I've got a reprieve it's another year we can give it a go potentially start maybe kick on more who knows.

DK: Yeah, we've had no regrets this season.

LI: No, well there are regrets obviously there's there is time there's a lot there's a lot of games you can look back on and we could have had another 15 points really but at the end of the day we're a part-time team from Suffolk and we're playing against teams like Chester, Scunthorpe, if you can't be proud of that then you might as much pack it in now.

DK: And some of those teams you mentioned Hereford we've taken points off.

LI: Yeah we've done we've done well at times this season there's no doubt about it but the table don't lie the table didn't lie last season when we finished top of it so we can't pretend like it lies this season so yeah just hope I should hope and pray and I hopefully all good things will come to good people.

DK: And one thing I've noticed this season is having gone up a level we've had extra exposure which is good not just for the clubs but for you players individually.

LI: Yeah of course I mean my time's gone so I'll be at Needham and then I'll retire so but for the younger lads it's obviously great exposure for them to kick on and do more things in football.

It's great for the club brings more money in and obviously people just need to take note of all the stuff that people behind the scenes at the club do that you've got so many volunteers you got and Dave Clarke puts out a count and Kate put countless hours into this club so hopefully they've got out of it what they would like from us. The success we've had so I just hope that everyone sticks with us and there's everyone hopes to see us back.

Patrick Brothers reflects on Saturday's home win over Rushall.

DK: A huge three points, Sat. You must be pleased.

PB: Yeah, very.

It was quite an even game, I thought, but we edged it. First half, a couple of chances for either side. But I think we were the better team in the second half.

We had a couple of good chances. Subs made a difference and, yeah, the goal was really good. A couple of passes, got down the left and, yeah, Ingers put it away.

So, yeah, really happy.

DK: Yeah, it's been like an up and down day, really, because before kickoff, we're kind of still maybe getting to groups with the fact of survival being very unlikely, but we're still playing a brilliant performance.

PB: Yeah, yeah, it is tough.

Obviously, the league table don't lie, but there is still hope. So, a bit like Tom says in the team talk, that you've just got to go out there and just try and win every game, whether it's three, two or even one, just got to try and win every game. And hopefully, you know, miracles can happen.

And today obviously helps. Credit to the players because, you know, when you're sort of eight, nine, ten points adrift of survival, they can kind of give up or you can kind of think, oh, it's already done. But obviously today showing that they still believe and three points helps.

DK: Yeah, going into a busy bank holiday next week, it fills us full of confidence.

PB: A hundred percent. Football is about momentum.

And it's like anything, as soon as you win one, two games, then it gives players confidence. Not saying the two fixtures will be easy, but we know if we turn up with the right attitude and on our day, as we've shown on a few occasions this year, that we can beat anyone. So, yeah, today will help points-wise and confidence-wise, but they won't be easy, like any game in this league isn't easy.

So, yeah, we should go into it with a bit of confidence, but we're not fools. We've still got to work hard and as a team be hard to beat.

DK: It's been quite, if we take into context the whole season, considering where, as Ingers put it, we're a semi-pro side, part-time side, taking on hybrids and full-time sides.

PB: Yeah. There can, in a way, we can go away, we'll get, whatever happens, proud of the season. 100 per cent.

Obviously, people, you know, you hear people say little old Needham and at the end of the day, compared to some of the clubs in this league, we are a small club, but that's where credit comes to the committee, the staff, the management and the players that we have competed. We have beat some big teams. We have competed, you know, and it is tough.

There's full-time clubs at this level. There's ex-League One clubs, League Two clubs here. I just think we just have to enjoy every moment when we play these big clubs and we have.

There is credit throughout the season where we have shown that little old Needham can compete at the highest level, but it looks like we may just fall short. But, you know, there's still a chance that we can survive.