A well-taken 13th minute goal was enough to give an injury-hit side a hard-earned victory at Calverton. After receiving the ball from Tom Hazelwood, James Clarke’s clever pass found Curtis French 30 yards from goal. French, returning from a serious shoulder injury, showed great strength to hold off a Calverton defender before slotting the ball past the keeper into the right-hand corner of the goal.

Martin Scott was forced to make several changes to the previous week’s team, but Elston started the game confidently and had already made a couple of good chances before French’s goal. However, as the first half wore on, Calverton, currently sitting at the foot of Division 2 of the Nottinghamshire Senior League, began to see more of the ball and create some chances of their own. Even so, Elston may have gone into the interval with a two-goal advantage, but Joe Wroughton’s curling left-foot shot narrowly went over the bar.

The second half was as scrappy as the first, with both sides struggling to build any meaningful possession or create good chances, but a Tom Hazelwood twenty-yard shot was tipped over the bar by the Calverton keeper and Will Veys was unlucky to see his side-foot finish from Joe Wroughton’s cross go the wrong side of the post. While this was far from being Elston’s best performance of the season, the three points mean that The Clams remain two points ahead of Notts Olympic at the top of the league with four games in hand.

Elston United: Brad Musgrove, Tom Newbould (Harry Johnson 65), James Smith, Nathan Watson, Sam Adcock, Barney Repper, Tom Hazelwood, Curtis French (Will Veys 75), James Clarke, Joe Wroughton, Rui Thacker.