AFC Sudbury manager Jamie Godbold has challenged his side to start another impressive unbeaten run, after his league leaders were hammered at home to ten-man Thurrock on Saturday.

Unbeaten in 12 prior to Saturday’s contest at the Wardale Williams Stadium, Godbold’s men were comprehensively beaten by a Thurrock side who, with two games in hand on their hosts, moved up to third in the Ryman League Division North table.

Thurrock, and AFC Hornchurch, in second, could both close the gap on Sudbury to three points tomorrow night, if they win their respective games at home to Harlow and away at Maldon & Tiptree and Godbold’s men suffer another reverse at home to Tilbury.

However, Godbold is not thinking about dropping any more points and is determined for his team to put Saturday to bed and get back on the winning trail.

He said: “There is so much football still to be played yet and there will be so many twists and turns before the end of the season.

“It was a bad day at the office against Thurrock, but you don’t become a bad side overnight, we have had a terrific run, so lets see if we can start another one on Tuesday.

“The sign of how good we are will be how we react on Tuesday night against Tilbury.”

A deflected effort from Joe Christou, plus strikes from Tom Cummings, Michael Toner and Ronnie Winn gave the visitors, who had Lewis Clark sent off midway through the second half, a comfortable win.

All four goals came in the opening 35 minutes of the game and Godbold admitted his side struggled to deal with the way their opponents set up.

“Credit to Thurrock, they came out of the blocks very quickly and we could not get to grips with the system they played,” added Godbold.

“All the damage was done in the first half which made the second half a bit of a training game of attack versus defence, and we found it really difficult to break them down.”

With the title race set for an enthralling end to the season, Godbold quipped: “I have been asked all week about the importance of the game and it being a title-decider, so I guess Thurrock have gone and won the league with 17 games left!