It was perhaps fitting that it was Hayden Catchpole who scored Woolverstone United's 100th club goal of the season to help secure a 2-0 win over Melton United at the Hazelwood Stadium.

Catchpole's clever free kick, low and around the wall, not only edged Woolverstone a step close to the Macron SIL Division Two title, but won him a case of beer.

First team manager Clive Catchpole and his reserves counterpart Matt Catchpole had put the case up as an incentive for the player to score the century of combined club goals in the centenary season.

No one was going to begrudge top scorer Hayden Catchpole who took his tally for the season to 23 goals in 20 games.

Clive said: "Hayden is on fire and if we can keep him going until the end of the season we will do well.

"It is fitting for Hayden but both teams have done really well to score so many goals between them."

It wasn't always the prettiest of games but Woolverstone were patient, pragmatic and wore the opposition down. Melton ran out of legs playing up the slope in the second half.

Melton had their skipper sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes for dissent towards the referee, but he was back on the pitch when Woolverstone substitute Daniel Knights grabbed the clincher with a deflected shot.

"We do seem to play our best football in the last 20 minutes and that is down to the hard work the players have put in to be the fittest team in the division." said Clive.

Woolverstone have now gone 11 straight games unbeaten, stretching back to October when they lost against rivals Cockfield, and have not conceded a goal since Christmas.

Clive added: "If we can go to the end of the season losing just one game then I will take that."

Woolverstone now have a nine point lead over second placed Cockfield United, who they meet at home on 12 March.

First they face bottom club Ipswich Athletic at the King George playing fields, Whitton in two weeks, and victory would be enough to secure promotion to Division One.

"Melton were one of the teams that could have caught us so that has made it really difficult for them to win the league," added Clive.

"We will need to be at it against Ipswich because you can never know. If we can beat Cockfield then that should be us for the title."

*Scroll right on top image for more pictures.

Brother Craig, the club chairman, had previously vowed to pull out all the stops for Woolverstone to reach the highest division in their 100 year history. Full story here...

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