Hucknall Town First Team Coach Phil Henry was very impressed with how the Yellows performed as they ended their four-game winless streak by beating Harrowby United 4-2 at the Environcom Stadium.

Striker Craig Westcarr added two more goals to his tally for the season while Louis Kinnerley and Aaron Lamb also each found the net to help secure an important victory on the road.

Speaking after the match, an elated Henry said: “We’re really pleased with the result and the circumstances of it. The very windy conditions were always going to be difficult to contend with for both sides, but I thought the lads coped really well.

“We created a number of opportunities in the first half but very few of them were clear-cut, so the first goal was welcome and the second one even more so, and very well made.

“We were worthy leaders at half-time, and we knew we’d be under pressure in the second half with the wind behind the opposition.

“Even though that might’ve been the case, I thought we set up pretty well in terms of shape, and we had to be quite brave in possession. They boxed us in at times, but we seemed to manage the game effectively.”

Henry was eager to emphasise just how thrilled he was with Town’s performance after the break as they held firm despite losing centre-back Lenford Jenkins to an injury with just under half an hour remaining.

He stated: “We were absolutely delighted with the quality of the defensive football in the second half and it showed that the lads had really taken Wednesday night’s training session on board, which was all about shape and pressing.

“For the ten-minute period in which we were down to nine men [after Westcarr was sin-binned] it was almost inevitable that they would score goals, but once we got Westy back on we again had an outlet ball, which was how the fourth goal came about.

“I thought the players’ work rate was phenomenal. You’ve got to take your hat off to them because they had to retain their shape and dig in for considerable periods of the match.

“Everybody was elated at full-time because we’ve obviously turned a corner by getting this result. You always expect to have peaks and troughs in a competitive season like this and we’re hopeful that today could kickstart another positive run for us.”

After re-signing for the club earlier in the week, forward Matt Brian was named in the Yellows’ starting XI in Lincolnshire and played a key role in the victory.

“I thought he [Brian] played excellently,” Henry said. “He did exactly what we asked of him – he linked the play up really nicely and his contribution was clear to see.

“He held the ball up, played the ball into feet and we saw a lot of very good movements from him throughout.

“We’re really pleased to have him back. He’s not played a lot of football over the last four weeks so it’s a really promising sign that he was able to produce such an impressive display.”

By George Wilson