Sleaford Town battle past strugglers as Siddons strikes

The match was ruined by more storm-force gusts, but Town supporters went home comforted by another three points which edged them closer to a mid-table finish.

“It was a game of very few clear chances and Tom took pretty much our only one in clinical fashion,” manager Jamie Shaw told the Standard.

“Defensively we looked solid and restricted Rothwell to less than a handful of clear chances, with Chris Adams making a good stop from the best chance they had.”

Another plus for Sleaford on a day not for the purists was the senior debut of Ewan Armstrong, another youngster to be promoted from the club’s successful under 18s side.

In a game of very few chances, Ollie Bean had to be alert to clear a rare opportunity off the line after the break.

But then Siddons struck the all-important winner with a low finish from the edge of the box for his second goal in three games since returning to the club.

The win left Town in 14th place, 14 points clear of the bottom three with only eight matches left, and perhaps more pertinently within eight points of the top 10.

Following last week’s sad withdrawal of mid-table Oadby, Town should be set to rise further when the Leicestershire side are removed from the table.

Town now face a testing run of fixtures as a trip to leaders Daventry on Saturday (ko 3pm) is followed by the visit of second-placed Rugby Town seven days later.