Thurman's Thirds take home points in feisty must-win match

In a must win match, the Sils looked to reverse the loss of earlier in the season against Melton who were a few places, but only 3 points ahead of them in the table.

The Sils were pleased to welcome back Andy Wing and James Hetherington into the defence and kept the experienced duo of Warren Gray and Simon Russell, but with Rob Brown still unavailable, Steve Aylin once again helped the club out by putting the keeper kit on.

With the visitors only just up to 11 men at the start with a late arriver, the home side were able to capitalise and started the much stronger side. Their early pressure built as they overloaded on the right hand side and John Scott was able to maraud in his usual fashion down the right touch-line to create a couple of early opportunities - Captain Rich Thurman went closest with a superb first-time shot which just flew over the cross bar without the keeper even seeing it.

Thankfully for the Sils, the pressure did pay off, and unsurprisingly the breakthrough came from some good play down the right. Sam-Alex Exins beat his man for pace, and made it to the byline to pull the ball back. Gareth Dawes was unable to get a touch on the cross, but Warren Gray was on hand to fire home. One-nil, and everything looking good.

However, the visitors stepped up their aggression, particularly through their skillful but (at times) overly competitive central-midfielder, and they forced their way back into the game. From a passage of play down the right, the ball was crossed in, and with Aylin trying to close the space down, a deflection off a defender's stick wrong-footed him and gave the simplest of chances to their young forward to score into an open net.

Melton were now on top, and Sils were very lucky to not go behind a few minutes later, as the umpire overturned a goal from a Penalty Corner as the ball had not left the D. However, it was all Melton for the last few minutes of the half, and Sils had a lot to talk about at half-time.

The second half started with Melton in the ascendancy again, but soon Sils had a fast break. This initially looked as if it was going to come to nothing when Gareth Dawes was left one-on-one with their last defender, but lost the ball in trying to beat his man, however, the ball broke kindly to Warren Gray who drew the last man, and then played Dawes back in - this time Gareth made no mistake, very calmly taking the ball around the keeper and firing home as the tracking back defenders made vain attempts to stop the ball going in.

The next goal was going to be crucial, and only a few minutes later Sils had the two goal cushion. A PC won by some good play down the left channel by Tom Cloke led to a Thurman shot being saved by the keeper, only for Dawes to react quickest and flick the ball home past the defender on the line.

The drama was still not over though, as once again the Melton central-midfielder rallied the troops and urged his team forward. They won a PC, and from the resultant shot, the ball was deflected off the line by John Scott's foot - a clear penalty stroke to the visitors. The visitor's main protagonist stepped up to take the stroke, but Aylin somehow managed to get combination of stick, foot and glove to the ball to deflect the ball wide and over the bar. At 3-2, the game could have gone either way, but with the 2 goal cushion still intact, and the Melton play-maker beginning to implode, the Sils started to look far more comfortable. Simon Russell did an excellent job of stopping any further danger coming from the opposition's central midfielder, who then spent a good 5 minutes simply trying to hit the ball at his opponent - Simon (on most occasions) being fast enough to simply jump out the way and watch the ball fly harmlessly out of play!

A nervous final few minutes were played out by the Sils, and a vital 3 points was secured.

The 3rds now have crucial matches against Berkswell, Tamworth and North Notts in the next 3 weeks who are all within 1 or 2 points of each other in the league.