All to play for in promotion chase as Kimberley MW face key matches

Kimberley are firmly involved in the promotion battle.

The Miners continue to sit second in the league standings, six points behind leaders Hinckley and with two games in hand, although unbeaten Hinckley have a superior goal difference.

Speaking ahead of Wednesday night’s game with Hucknall Town, which Kimberley went on to win 3-0 thanks to goals from Sam Brown, Luis Rose and Sacha Markelic, Furnell said that match and this Saturday’s home game with seventh-placed Dunkirk will be a good marker as to the progress being made by his and Ant Ward’s side.

He said: “The Hucknall and Dunkirk games should give us a real indication of where we're at in the play-off race as both are very much in contention themselves.

“All we can do is keep doing our jobs and grinding out results and see where that leaves us in the coming months.

“It's certainly a tight race with eight teams chasing the play-off places and Hinckley leading the pack after churning out result after result at the top.”

Looking back at Saturday’s win over Lutterworth, Furnell felt it was a case of both teams having to battle with the windy conditions as much as each other.

He said: “It was another weekend of blustery conditions to get to grips with and the wind was howling down the length of the pitch.

“Neither side could create a lot of chances and it was goalless at the break and we told the lads to be patient and we would get opportunities that we’d have to take to settle the nerves and hopefully make the game more open.

"Lutterworth penned us back for a few minutes at the start but then our skipper Sam Brown scored from a corner, although it was only just over the line.

"Lutterworth had a good spell but couldn’t really test our keeper Danny Rigley too much and we then countered well and Nathan Banton slotted home the second.

" We'd spoken in the week about needing to manage games better and given the previous game leading 1-0 up to the 95th minute, the lads took this on board and closed the game out without giving Lutterworth any clear cut chances.

"Lutterworth were great hosts and made us all very welcome.”