THURLOW NUNN FIRST DIVISION Whitton 5 Coggeshall 4

East Anglian Daily Times: Whitton manager Steve Jay watches from the sidelines at Whitton on SaturdayWhitton manager Steve Jay watches from the sidelines at Whitton on Saturday

Whitton continued their resurgence with a thrilling victory over the long-time league leaders.

The home side made it six wins on the bounce as they held off a late Coggeshall rally to move up into the top half of the division.

East Anglian Daily Times: Lewis Bell (right) celebrates scoring the opening goal for Whitton against Coggeshall. Picture: Ashley PickeringLewis Bell (right) celebrates scoring the opening goal for Whitton against Coggeshall. Picture: Ashley Pickering

It was the visitors who started the brighter and took the lead after 17 minutes when Tyrone Scarlett followed up to score after Whitton ‘keeper Ross Welton blocked Danny Scott’s initial effort. Jamie Shaw and Tom Monk could have added further goals before Franco Mallardo’s free kick was headed back into the danger zone for Lewis Bell to force home an equaliser with the hosts’ first shot on target.

The second half was a pulsating affair. Just before the hour Coggeshall were caught on the break with Matt Percy outpacing the last defender to put Steve Jay’s men ahead. Sean Radley should have equalized only to put a free header wide from six yards out.

Coggeshall did level the scores with a quarter of an hour remaining as substitute Nnamdi Nwachuku pulled the ball back from the byline into the path of Shaw and when Welton blocked his effort Kamal Guthmy followed up to finish.

However, Whitton went straight up the other end and won a corner which saw Mallardo’s delivery headed home at the back post by Ben Griggs. Shortly afterwards the home side extended their lead as Radley lost the ball on the halfway line to Josh Cheetham who was eventually brought down inside the area. Cheetham picked himself up to send the keeper the wrong way from the spot. Whitton were not finished and netted a fifth on 84 minutes when Mallardo’s inch-perfect free kick found Cheetham who drilled home his second.

Coggeshall refused to give up and Tom Monk thundered a shot into the roof of the net to pull a goal back. The Essex side reduced the deficit further as the game went into injury time as Nwachuku converted Monk’s cross. In a grandstand finish Liam Thomas nearly salvaged a point for the visitors only for Harry Wales to make a last-ditch block.