IMPORTANT WIN FOR THE MARKETMEN

Needham Market returned to winning ways with a 2-1 victory over Redditch United at Bloomfields, for a fourth home league win in a row.

Tom Rothery made one change from Tuesday's draw at Stratford, Ryan Miles was unavailable and replaced by Seth Chambers, with Ollie Saunders (calf strain) back fit on the bench.

The afternoon got off to the perfect start, from the hosts' perspective as Myles Cowling (20') produced a cracking solo goal, only to go into the interval level after Bunn's low strike (35').

Seth Chambers (50') proved the match-winner, finishing off another good move to secure an important three points to finish the afternoon in sixth, a point outside the play-offs.

Luke Ingram slotted Jake Dye down the right-hand side in the second minute, the full-back held the ball up well in the area, twisting and turning towards goal, but was dispossessed before he could find a fellow Red shirt.

James Bradbrook at the other end (5') commanded his six yard box well to punch clear a dangerous corner into a packed area.

Ingram (8') was fed driving down the right wing, as Needham enjoyed more of the early possession and had the better of the chances, but hung his cross wide.

Needham went close in the 11th minute, a great run from Tommy Smith down the left wing saw the defender smartly find Seth Chambers with a low pass, the forward held it up well with his back to goal, teeing up Cowling - arriving onto the left-hand edge of the box - whose first time strike across goal was acrobatically cleared off the line by Harry Eden, into the keeper's gloves.

Cowling (14') almost latched onto an inviting low ball into the area but couldn't keep his footing, while Chambers' (15') low strike from distance on the left-hand side was beaten away well by the keeper.

Joe Neal (19') couldn't quite find Chambers arriving in the area as a defender intercepted, although Needham deservedly opened the scoring (20').

A fine solo goal from Cowling, who broke onto the left-hand side, beat his man onto the byline where he expertly fired low into the far corner from an acute angle - netting his third league goal of the campaign, all three at Bloomfields.

The goalscorer continued to cause havoc for the visiting defence (29'), the attacker was found free on the edge of the box, only to see his shot deflected wickedly and just wide for a corner.

Robbie Bunn (35') however equalised against the run of play, firing home into the bottom right-hand corner from just outside the box.

Kyle Hammond (43') whipped a dangerous free-kick from range towards Keiran Morphew, albeit the set-piece was claimed by Warmington.

Hunter (45'+2) saw a low shot across goal deflected wide in the last action, of a rather frustrating first half for the Marketmen, who had the better of the chances and possession in the first half.

The hosts (46') started the second half brightly, having passed the ball around nicely following a quick free-kick, Neal slid Cowling free onto the left-hand side whose low strike was deflected wide as the keeper helped it past his near post.

It wasn't long before the Suffolk side retook the lead (50'), with a well taken goal. After clearing a corner, Hammond surged past a flying tackle down the left, to thread Ben Hunter clear down the centre, who unselfishly teed up Chambers free on the right to find the gaping bottom near corner for his third league goal.

Chambers (52') went close to a quick second, grazing the top of the crossbar from a corner after another dangerous run onto the left-hand byline from Cowling.

Needham remained on top, nearly adding a third (57'), Ingram's floated cross however was glanced wide by Hammond at the far post from point blank range.

Meanwhile at the opposite end, a rare shot from the visitors (62') saw Bradbrook equal to it, low to his right-hand near post to deny Loughlan's left-footed effort.

Morgan Owen was the recipient of the game's first yellow card (65') for a heavy challenge on Hammond, who was then replaced by Saunders - along with Chambers making way for Reggie Lambe.

Needham were persistent in their hunt for a third, though Hunter's lofted ball in from range picked out Cowling at close range whose header was fantastically saved by Warmington.

Neal (71') met Cowling's superb left-hand cross following another good move, at close range, but looped it just over the crossbar.

Max Appauh was introduced for his home debut, in place of Ingram, whose curled strike from range (79') was well held by the diving Warmington.

Appauh (81') then danced onto the left-hand side, and appeared to be tugged back as the away side cleared, prior to almost providing the third (83').

The winger's cross is glanced on by Cowling at point blank range which was as equally well saved by Warmington.

Bradbrook (88') thwarted Owen, while Barker replaced Cowling.

Needham travel to St Ives Town on Saturday (3pm).

MOTM Myles Cowling said, "I think since the Stourbridge, game, I think we've really upped the performances. Obviously them two games here, we took that performance into the two away games, unfortunately we didn't get the results the last couple of games, but that was a big one today and hopefully we can start picking on now again with results to match the performances really. It's a tough place to come for other teams here, so we've got to try and keep it that way, definitely. You know, even when I used to come here, it's always a tough place and we want to keep it that way."

Discussing his goal, "I didn't know if the whistle was going to go, but when it didn't, I just thought get my head down, get it on target and hope for the best. So yeah, that was a good platform for us to build on. I think we reacted well after we conceded as well.

Obviously an early goal, second half, which was important and that was the winner. So yeah, I was happy with that. Maybe I need some heading practice, but to be fair, no, I was happy I'm getting the chances, that the goals will come, but if I'm getting the chances, I'll be happy. I don't want to be too selfish, but I think they're right. Sometimes you just got to be selfish and take the chances as they come. It was a big game, all my family were here watching. I had to make sure I performed for them. Last time they came, they paid 15 quid and I didn't play. So yeah, they'll be happy.

on facing St Ives next week, "my old team. So I'll be looking forward to that one. Big game again. Hopefully we can carry on climbing the table."

Assistant Manager Nathan Munson added, "Very pleased with the three points and I thought we were very good today.

Played well, moved the ball well and I think fully deserving of the points actually. We played well in the first half. We are a good side. We're good against pretty much anybody. At home, we fancy ourselves against anybody in this league. We even showed last season in the National League North that from Christmas onwards, we were a handful at home and we want to build that fortress again this year. That's important to us. I think we got off well and it's important again to get three points because it keeps you in touch with the play-offs and that's the key objective. We just want to make teams have to work hard to get points here and I think again today you saw the amount of chances that we created. It's positive. I think we're an attractive side to watch if I'm honest. Tom, I think we play some really lovely stuff. We play it in the right way. We move the ball and we can battle as well.

That's the nice thing and I suppose today it's just really important to get the three points because whilst I think we dominated in large parts of the match, when you're only that one goal ahead, there's always the danger that they might think something from the match."

Asked what pleased him most, "Three points. I think the start was good. We got ahead and we're full value for getting ahead but then they equalised probably their only shot in the first half that I can remember. Lad did well from the sideline. He weaved his way through a couple of them and scored so that could have been stuffing out of us but actually from the second half, straight out of the blocks, we got it after four or five minutes we're back in front. Even then, we didn't sit back. We kept playing. We kept creating and on the other day, Milo gets a hat-trick. Lots of things to be pleased about but certainly the way we played is one of them. Max was excellent when he came off the bench and listen, we know that's why we signed him because when we played against Tilbury, we had him watched and the scout said he was their threat and then when he came here, he gave us some real problems and scored and gave us some other problems and so we knew he was a good player and it's just taken a couple of weeks to adjust to the training and what we require of him but I think everybody saw today that if Max continues to play like that, he's got a bright future in the game and he's a really good lad. He's a really nice lad. He trains hard and we just want to see more of him and want to see him develop here at Needham Market."

On the half-time team talk, "Positive, really, because of the way anybody that watched the first half would see how we were moving the ball and how we were threatening and sort of threading passes through and creating so it was more of the same, really. We felt that if we played at a really high tempo like we did in the first half, if we were able to maintain that tempo, we felt that we'd get chances and that's how it turned out to be. So, yeah, it's really positive because I think there's a lot to be positive about at the minute."

Munson felt we were Slightly more clinical, adding, "Slightly more. I think the chance to goal ratio, there's still room for improvement. We'll go away to somewhere and we'll nick a lot of 1-0 where we score for our only chance. That'll happen, it's just it feels at the minute we're not in that space. Like I said the other day and I'll repeat it again today, you keep creating. It's an exciting team to watch so the fans will go home happy, I think, for a variety of reasons, not least that we're attractive on the eye. Also we are putting a number in the net because we've got two today, we've got two the other night, we've got four at home to bury, we've got three against Stourbridge, so we are scoring a lot of goals and that's very nice to see. It's a really difficult trip to St Ives, always difficult there. They of course had a great win today at Spalding, it was a fantastic result for them so they'll be full of confidence if we can go there and play like we know we can.

We're positive, I think you can look at the league tab, we're just on the fringes of where we think we should be. We're not shouting from the rooftops but we think we've got a bit in the dressing room, we think we've got a good group of lads that want to work hard and improve so that gives us a chance at this level of football so we go there full of confidence. I think it's always important to win your home games.

I'd say people will look at Tuesday night and there'll be a variety of viewpoints but a point away from home is not normally bad. If you can pick up points at home then you won't be far away and that's what we've done. We've been 90% safe, that's four wins at home and we're starting to make it a difficult place to come.

If we can continue to nick points away from home then we'll be pleased with that."