Joint Downham Town boss praises defence as club keep fourth successive clean sheet in Thurlow Nunn Premier Division

Downham Town have never been short of a goal this season but their rise up the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division table has been built from a strong defensive base.The signs are emerging that Downham are getting back to their miserly best on that front after moving up a place in the table to sixth following a 4-0 victory over Long Melford at the weekend.In their current seven-game unbeaten run in all competitions, they have conceded just three times – two of those being in a League Cup tie – and in their 24 games so far, they have shut the opposition out 10 times.Their latest shut-out was their fourth successive clean sheet in the Premier Division and only league leaders Mildenhall Town can boast a better defensive record this season.Joint boss Craig Dickson said: “I think that’s four clean sheets in the last six games maybe, which is a promising sign.”The defensive is a big part of being successful. Other than Mildenhall I think we have one of the best defensive records this season.“The game was strange. Winning 4-0 is a great result but the performance was strange from both sides.”We started very brightly and took an early 2-0 lead.”Long Melford then sat in and we didn’t manage the game well enough despite controlling the game.”If we were offered the 4-0 before the game we would have taken it and James Moore getting back on the scoresheet is a real positive for the group moving forward to the Dereham game.”Looking ahead to the game at Dereham on Saturday, Dickson added: “We lost the return game on Boxing Day despite a decent performance and the red cards on the day.”Hopefully we can be on the right end of the result this time round which would put us in a real positive position moving forward with the play-offs.”Saturday’s latest success saw Fletcher Toll continue his remarkable run of form in front of goal with a brace.Toll (2), Matty Castellan and James Moore were all on target in the Premier Division encounter at the Memorial Field.The win saw Downham leapfrog their next opponents in the league standings.

Football Greg Plummer