By Brian Bennett

Interim manager Marc Ellison was full of praise for his players after their 6-3 victory over Lincoln United at Woodhorn Lane on Saturday.

After securing their place in the East Division next season, the win propelled the Colliers up to 14th place on 51 points – their highest tally in the league.

A delighted Ellison said afterwards: “Not a bad way to finish the season, if we’re all being honest. Six goals in front of a decent home crowd – so not too much to complain about there. However, if I’m being picky, a couple of the goals we conceded were really poor, especially as we’d already looked at them scoring very similar ones in previous games. We did get a bit complacent in spells, but when you’re 3-0 up inside 15 minutes, that can happen at any level.”

He continued: “Overall though, I’m absolutely delighted for the players. It’s been a tough season at times – and rightly so, as none of us have been good enough consistently but to come out today, in what was essentially a dead rubber, and put a team (who’ve had an unbelievable second half of the season) under that much pressure says everything. If we’re honest, we probably should’ve scored more. Full credit to every single one of them (the players) and I’m over the moon.”

He added: “At the start of March, we set a target to go unbeaten at home until the end of the season. Three draws and four wins later, we’ve done exactly that. I also believe we’ve finished with our highest points total since promotion to this level. Considering where we were around Christmas, I can’t praise or thank the players enough for their effort and commitment in the second half of the season. Finally, a big thank you to the supporters for sticking with us throughout, we all know it hasn’t been the most enjoyable at times, but hopefully we’ve given them plenty to shout about over the last couple of weeks and something to be excited about as we look ahead to next season.”