Barton Rovers made it back-to-back league wins with a slender 1-0 victory over local rivals Arlesey Town on Saturday.
As narrow as the final scoreline was, the picture of the game was completely different as Rovers peppered Arlesey’s goal in the first half.
Jimmy Gray’s side created no fewer than nine chances which all went begging as Charlie Smith, Connor Calcutt, Jimmy Hartley and Elliott Bailey failed to find the net due to a combination of dogged defending and wayward shooting.
Arlesey’s spirits were lifted in the second half but they were still content to sit and defend with only the occasional dangerous break forward.
Barton had a great effort to open the scoring after 65 minutes but Elliot Bailey saw his effort tipped round the post for a series of corners which came to nothing.
When the game looked destined to finish in stalemate due to Arlesey’s resolute defending, up popped the ever lively Rod Orlando-Young with a cracking run down the flank before beating his man and expertly slotting past Bart Pedrycz to score the only goal of the game on 82 minutes.
The result lifted Barton to sixth in the table, two points outside the play-offs, as boss Gray said: “After all the chances we had it would have been a complete travesty not to win the game. “Arlesey parked the bus after an hour and were clearly content with a draw which made it all the more difficult for us.“The lads worked tirelessly and I couldn’t fault any of them, that was a quality performance.“We need to play the same on Tuesday night in our next local derby at AFC Dunstable who are having a great start to their first season at this level.”
Barton Rovers 1 Arlesey Town 0
R Orlando-Young 82