Gainsborough Trinity's '˜magnificent' win keeps up chase at the top

After a seventh game unbeaten, Trinity, who won the November Team of the Month award, sit fifth but only five points behind leaders Nantwich Town with two games in hand.

Ross Hannah’s 66th minute header on Saturday proved enough and Sinnott smiled: “It was a very short speech from me afterwards. I thought it was a magnificent three points.

“A 1-0 away at Lancaster in those kind of conditions is, for me, as good as a free-flowing five or six nil at home. That’s how much I value the three points on the day.

“If you look at our record over the last five games, it’s 13 points from 15.

“We have picked up a lot of points recently – four wins and draw in the last five games. It’s an impressive points return.

“You can easily lose games like this. They’re like two boxers trading blows. It was hard-fought for, but for most of the time I though we defended really well.

“The pressure is always on the at top. We dropped two points last week and a little bit more pressure came onto the Lancaster game to keep up with the pack at the top of the league.

“If you fail to pick up the points in two games you can easily get left behind. That’s how we got left behind early on for a little bit. Then we pulled it back.”

A very heavy pitch at Lancaster made the win even more satisfying and Sinnott said he would take the conditions into account for his tired players in training this week.

“We always knew the pitch was going to be really heavy – walking across it at the end of the game it was hard to keep your footing,” he said.

“We used to get on with it but it’s a bit foreign to players nowadays.

“We will adapt training accordingly this week.

“The players had their Christmas do last week. It was a good bonding session and they have come back and secured three points on the road which is fantastic.”

It was a game of few chances at either end at Lancaster and Sinnott said: “I told them at half-time to show patience and just have a bit more quality when we get to the final third.

“We’d approached it enough times but just not produced anything.

“There were a couple of bits and pieces defensively but we had a chat in a constructive way.”

On the winning goal, he said: “It was a game of few chances and it was always going to be one piece of quality that would win the game. So we showed that piece of quality at the right time.

“It was a nice breakaway. Alex Simmonds has set off fleet of foot. “Full credit to him. He’s not just scoring great goals now, he’s creating them for us which shows how far he’s come on.

“I think he realised there was going to be nobody in the box so he put in a kind of half slow step which brought him back a little bit, then delivered the ball.

“It was perfect for Ross arriving at the right time with a brave header as well as it was quite low.”

On winning the award, he added: “The players have done ever so well to get Evo-Stik Team of the Month for November.

“I would just like to make sure everyone at the football club realises it’s for everybody, not just the first team squad or the management. It’s a whole club thing.

“Your next game after an award is usually cursed so maybe we’ve avoided that at Lancaster.”