After lifting the Herts Senior Centenary Trophy for a record fourth time in mid-week, the Lilywhites were back to the equally important business of a league match against a visiting Tower Hamlets team desperately in need of points to steer themselves away from the threat of relegation.

Both teams went into this game in the knowledge that nobody currently in the bottom half of the table is mathematically safe from the drop. Only eight points separated Clapton in 11th place and the resurgent St Margaretsbury in 22nd. The Lilywhites therefore needed a victory to help them climb further up the table away from a danger, into a more respectable position. A potential play-off place is still not out of the question.

This game was therefore always likely to be a close-fought affair - and so it proved. The drying pitch was never going to be conducive to the Lilywhites’ passing style and the visitors’ more direct approach, with fast-running forwards, very often looked the more dangerous tactic.

That having been said, the Lilywhites’ back four of Barker, Riddle, Gibbs and Bolton, dealt effectively with everything that was thrown at them and what few chances there were in the first half fell to the Lilywhites. Conor Casey shot wide from a narrow angle in the 7th minute and Callum Bennison had a header cleared off the line in the 42nd. He was also through one-on-one with the keeper in the second minute of added time but was thwarted by a covering defender after he had flicked the ball past the keeper.

The Lilywhites needed to break the deadlock and they did so in the 56th minute with what is generally believed to be a historic moment. Harrison Cage was introduced as a 55th-minute substitute and within a minute, and with his first possession, he skipped past two defenders and chipped the ball over the diving keeper into the back of the net for what turned out to be the only goal of the game.

After this the game became very fragmented, not helped by a lengthy delay for what appeared to be a serious injury to Conor Casey, who had to be stretchered off and taken to hospital.

The remainder of the game was played out without and further incidents of note although Dion Laughton could have put the result beyond doubt with eleven minutes of added-time still to play, when he was put through on goal but shot wide of a post as the keeper advanced towards him.

This was not a game for the purists but it produced a further three welcome points that lifted the Lilywhites to 12th in the table, still with games in hand on most of the other teams.

Man-of-the Match: Jack Gibbs

Team: Liam Nugent, Syd Barker, Connor Bolton, Jack Riddle, Jack Gibbs, George Rankin (Harrison Cage 55’), Conor Casey (Dion Laughton 64’), Blue Gallagher, Callum Bennison (Brandon James 77’), Bailey Eden & Kyle Roberts (Jimmy Agnew 77’).

Unused sub: Sam Cross