Mulbarton Wanderers 6 - 0 Sporle

Lineup: Richmond, Cullum, Wilford, Shannon, L. Appleton, Newbery, W. Farrow, Paice, Tarrant, Payne-Wilkins, Bailey

Subs: T. Brown, H. Dyson, Riseborough

Goals: Payne-Wilkins (3), Bailey, Tarrant, Cullum

MoTM: Adam Paice - High energy display, involved in everything and rarely loses possession.

Wanderers welcomed Sporle to Mulberry Park for the penultimate fixture of the season. Knowing that anything less than a victory would all but end our hopes of a second placed finish the pressure was on and that maybe showed a little in a first half where we struggled to get going.

Despite a slow tempo and a lack of intensity to the game we still managed to cut through the Sporle back line on numerous occasions but we were foiled time and time again, either by good goalkeeping or poor finishing.

And so we went into the half time break goalless, and the visiting Scarning players (our promotion rivals) were rubbing their hands with glee.

The second half proved that we had nothing to worry about, and early on we took the lead when Bailey took the ball around the advancing goal keeper, ran it towards the goal and placed it between the two defenders who had rushed back to the line. 1-0.

One became two when the same player made a strong run into the box and just before he could square it to one of his teammates he was bundled over, giving the referee no option but to point to the penalty spot. Jesse Payne-Wilkins stepped up and slotted his penalty into the corner of the net to make it 2-0.

The heavens were now opening and with the heavy rain came a much-improved performance from the Wanderers. We grabbed a third when a pin-point cross from Luke Appleton found Payne-Wilkins unmarked in the box and he made no mistake from close range. Jesse scored the fourth in similar fashion, this time it was a cross from Wilford that found him and he headed home.

Our fifth was a right footed drive by Jack Tarrant from the edge of the penalty area which found the bottom corner and the sixth was scored by Danny Cullum when he received the ball at the far post and beat the keeper from close range. Tom Brown thought he'd gotten in on the goalscoring action when he burst through the Sporle back line, rounded the keeper and finished well, but he was flagged offside (wrongly).

Final score 6-0.

After the frustrations of the first half the second half was very pleasing. The team can play some attractive football at times but what's more important is that they can play effective, penetrative football at a high tempo. This was missing in the first half but there was plenty of it in the second and with it brought our rewards.

We now look to Tuesday where we face Scarning at home. Defeat in this match is not an option and whilst we didn't give the best account of ourselves in our last encounter we will certainly be up for putting things right in this one.