Senior strikers at Gainsborough Trinity earn praise after back-to-back wins
Two league wins and two clean sheets suggests Gainsborough Trinity may have turned a corner.
After an inauspicious start to their campaign, Steve Housham's side have secured back-to-back victories to catapult them to 11th place.
The Blues were fully deserving of their three-point haul away at Solihull Moors on Saturday when goals from Darryn Stamp, his third in three games, and Paul Connor settled the Blue Square Bet North clash in Trinity's favour.
In truth, Solihull offered little in terms of an attacking threat, despite playing in front of their own fans.
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But the Blues still had a difficult job to do and they did it very well.
"I think they had us watched because they tried to counteract what we were doing," said Housham.
"They wanted to keep in the game as long as they could, we could hear them on the pitch saying just stay in there and, one day, that might work for them.
"They tried to do a job on Terry Hawkridge and keep him out of the game, but that is never an easy thing to do."
In fact, it proved to be impossible to keep the young midfielder quiet. It was Hawkridge who delivered the pass to break the deadlock.
After Connor had passed out to the left wing, Hawkridge controlled before he delivered the perfect cross for Stamp to head home after 60 minutes.
Trinity had to wait until a minute from time before sealing their victory.
Substitute Jonathan D'Laryea slipped a perfectly weighted pass through the Moors' defence for Connor to latch on to and score past Jasbir Singh.
"Who needs a new striker when we have Darryn Stamp at the club?" said the Trinity boss.
"I am pleased for Darryn, because he worked hard on a hot day again.
"And Paul Connor as well, you've got two senior strikers there giving it their all and I am delighted for them and delighted for the team.
"Sometimes the work goes unnoticed with those two. But they will look in the paper and see the names Stamp and Connor in the goalscorers' column."
It was a deserved win for Trinity and one which was made more pleasing due to the addition of their second successive clean sheet.
"They had a spell where they put us under pressure, but that's not taking anything away from our back four, because they were superb again," added Housham.
"They have come in and done well again and kept their shirt. I think this is the first time this season when I haven't changed the team and we have gone on to get back-to-back wins."
Housham will be hoping that stability will continue on Saturday when high-flying Chester FC are the visitors to the Northolme for an FA Cup second qualifying tie.
"This is the FA Cup," Housham said.
"Everyone wants to do well. For non-league players it's the best cup competition that you can be involved in.
"On paper they are the form team and we will be the underdogs. But we will just go out and enjoy it and give it our best shot.
"As a manager and as a player, from a non-league prospective, you want to be involved in the FA Cup.
"We are at home and we want to give our fans something to cheer about and make sure we are in the hat on Monday."
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