Sidbury 2, Bow 0 Sidbury United bagged their 14th and arguably their most important victory of the Fresha League Division One season when they defeated last season’s title winners at Byes Lane.

Prior to the match Bow had been beaten just once in a dozen Fresha outings – that by champions-elect Elmore Reserves – but United trooped off after 90 thrilling minutes deserved winners with the visitors well beaten.

It was a master-stroke from United boss Jeremy Schofield that ultimately saw his side claim the three points for he altered his teams regular style to go with a more subdued passing game instead of their regular swift counter-attacking style.

The opening quarter of the game saw Bow enjoy the greater share of the ball without ever testing United gloves man Harvey.

At the other end the pace of Ashley small caused the visiting defenders all manner of woes!

United took the lead with a slick and swift counter-attack that ended with Adam Connett bending the ball into the far corner of the net.

That proved to be the only goal of the first half, though Small had a couple of chances that, on another day, he might well have put away! One of the gilt-edged chances was a shot he skied over from just four yards out after a Dan Gale shot was parried.

After the break Small was beaten by the Bow keeper in a one-on-one, but, with recent signing Romanian centre half Constantin Rusu and Dan McCann forming a solid central defensive pairing, any chance Bow had of getting back into the contest looked slim.

With 10 minutes remaining Small atoned for his earlier misses when he executed a sublime lobbed shot over the advancing keeper to seal a precious victory.

Boss Schofield said: “We pressed the ball so well on a bobbly pitch. It’s hard for the opposition to get into any sort of rhythm when you adopt such tactics, but for it to work everyone has to put a shift in and that’s what we did. We used the channels and played the percentages and it worked. With our strike power we will always score goals. We had a game plan to not lose possession in our own final third and thus gift opportunities to them. All in all it was a job very well done by one and all.”

On Saturday United are again t home when they entertain seventh placed University (3pm).