Luton Town loanee Josh Allen nets AFC Sudbury vital three points against relegation rivals Hitchin Town

AFC Sudbury head into Saturday’s re-arranged visit of promotion-chasing AFC Teltford United (3pm) with renewed belief of pulling off the great escape after ending their nine-game winless run against relegation rivals Hitchin Town.

In the absence of injured top-scorer Joe Neal (thigh), Luton Town’s young talent Josh Allen rose to the challenge of filling his boots by scoring what was his third goal in five games for the Yellows against his former loan club.

The 20-year-old fired a sweet low shot into the bottom corner from just outside the area in the 43rd minute on Saturday, after visiting Hitchin failed to deal with a right-wing cross, in what proved to be the only goal of the game.

With Kettering Town, who sit one spot above AFC in the Pitching In Southern League Premier Central table, seeing their home match postponed, it saw Marc Abbott’s side close the gap to safety back up to four points from seven after their costly defeat to their rivals, having now played a game more. At the same time it brought Hitchin to within seven points with a game in hand and nine fixtures now remaining.

“I thought the result was more important than the performance,” the AFC boss told the club’s X (formerly Twitter) account of their sixth registered victory of the campaign, having seen two more against Nuneaton Borough wiped out following the latter’s withdrawal.

"In the first half I thought we were pretty dominant, we utilised the wind very well.

“I thought we caused them problems and put them on the back foot with forward running and forward thinking.

"It was a really good goal from Josh, obviously he first secured it, spun his man and a really good strike.

"We said at half-time that was a key moment and a really key time to score.

"We didn't really want half-time to be honest, it probably came at the worst time for us really.

"Second half was obviously a very different game, I thought we were gritty and determined and very, very hard working. To keep a clean sheet was good.”

It was an 11th straight league defeat for Hitchin who have now found themselves sucked into the relegation picture.

"I thought Hitchin were a shadow of what they have been and their manager Mark (Burke) is a good guy and a good manager,” said Abbott.

"Obviously today was quite tense but like I said, the result was the main thing over performance and you have to give credit to the players because I think they've never been too high when we've won or too low when we’ve lost.

"I know it's a cliché but this group of players epitomise that and I think they've shown again today they can be trustworthy and back themselves in key moments.

"So we're pleased and we now approach Telford which is one of them where I think we can cause them some problems here on the astro.

"We approach that excited and we're still in the hunt for what we want and what we need to deliver."

Sudbury faced Telford in Shropshire on February 24, losing out 3-2, with Callum Page scoring either side of their hosts’ third goal, having scored twice early in the first half.

It was the last time fourth-placed Telford, who were relegated in 2022/23, were in action, following a postponement at the weekend, and gave them a fourth win on the spin.

Sudbury’s trio of home games then concludes the following Saturday with the key return fixture with Kettering.