Gravesend & Northfleet 4 Leigh RMI 1

GRAVESEND & Northfleet's superb start to the season continues to gather pace after beating Leigh RMI at Stonebridge Road on Saturday.

The 4-1 victory, Fleet’s seventh in 11 league games, helped them climb to third place in the Nationwide Conference - just a point behind leaders Barnet.

But despite the comfortable winning margin against Leigh, it was far from plain sailing for Fleet in the first-half as they struggled to break the visitors’ defence.

Manny Omoyinmi thought he had opened the scoring after half an hour, but his strike was ruled out by the linesman’s flag.

Andy Ford, who was celebrating seven years in charge of Fleet, must have used all of his experience to fire his team up at the break because they came out for the second-half with renewed vigour and enthusiasm.

The extra effort paid off six minutes after the restart when Lee Protheroe sent a 20-yard free-kick round the wall and into the net after Omoyinmi had been fouled.

Protheroe’s goal seemed to take the pressure off the home side and they began to play with more freedom and purpose.

Roy Essandoh doubled their lead on 54 minutes when he headed home a Moussa Sidibe cross at the far post.

Essandoh scored again 10 minutes later, taking a pass from Ben Surey before putting the ball past Leigh keeper Ian Martin.

Leigh now looked a shadow of the hard-working, disciplined side from the first-half and they went further behind in the 74th minute.

Protheroe put in a dangerous cross and Fleet captain Steve McKimm sent a diving header past Martin to make it 4-0.

The points were effectively in the bag now, although Leigh scored a consolation goal four minutes from time when Garry Williams beat Paul Wilkerson.

Ford said: “I think patience was the key word. We knew that everyone was expecting us to win but it doesn’t always work like that.

“The fact people are expecting us to win these games shows we have stepped forward from last year. We need to keep it going, though, because as soon as you start putting yourself on pedastals people will be keen to knock you off them.”

Gravesend: Wilkerson, Protheroe, Skinner, Moor, Omoyinmi (Islam, 81 mins), McKimm, Saunders, Surey, Jackson, Essandoh (Pinnock, 82 mins), Sidibe (Drury, 84 mins). Substitutes not used: Mitten, Shearer.