Soham Town Rangers manager Lance Key praises ‘phenomenal effort’ after Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division wins over Brantham Athletic and Mulbarton Wanderers

Soham Town Rangers boss Lance Key has hailed the ‘phenomenal effort’ that his side put in to get the better of two of the Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division’s promotion contenders.

On Saturday afternoon, goals from midfielder Seth O’Neill and forward Ollie Ward earned the Greens a 2-0 victory away at league-leading Brantham Athletic.

And despite missing a number of senior players, Soham followed that up on Tuesday evening with a 1-0 win over fourth-placed Mulbarton Wanderers at Julius Martin Lane.

The decisive goal – which came during second-half stoppage time – was scored by under-23s player Jordan Atkin, who turned in a delivery from Ben Tofts of the club’s under-18s.

Speaking to the club’s social media channels, Key said: “Back-to-back games against Brantham and Mulbarton – you couldn’t ask for more.

“Brantham on Saturday was a tough ask and I thought we were superb, but to back that up tonight against a very good Mulbarton side, we had to dig in.

“We’re short on numbers in terms of experience. We had seven, if not eight, players that are from the under-18s and under-23s. Two of them made their debuts as well.

“It was just a phenomenal effort. The way we’ve defended – Jack Brame, one of the senior players, has not played for such long a while and he’s played Saturday and today. Everyone that’s played football will probably realise that he won’t be able to walk tomorrow.

“But it shows where we are right now and what we’ve created over the last six or seven games.

“It’s another clean sheet and obviously for one of the under-18s to cross for one of the under-23s (to score the winning goal) is the icing on the cake.”

Soham (12th) will now aim to stretch their unbeaten run of form in the league to five matches when they host Long Melford on Saturday (3pm).

Melford have endured a tough campaign and currently find themselves 20 points from safety, which Key believes will provide his side with a different type of challenge.

He added: “The boys will get a rest now after those tough back-to-back games. We’ve had three weeks of Saturday then Tuesday.

“Now it becomes a difficult task because we’re playing a side in the bottom two.

“We’ve just played two sides in the top five – can we recreate that against a side that’s in the bottom two? That will show to us what kind of mentality this young group has got.”