First half goals from Craig Veal and Shane White steered the Peacocks to a solid 2-0 Evo-Stik League victory at Yate Town yesterday afternoon (10th February).

Apart from being Town’s 19th consecutive league game without defeat, the win also maintained their superb unbeaten record on the road this season in all competitions. A drizzly day at Lodge Road saw the visitors take an 11th minute lead when Shane White headed goalwards from Ryan Brett’s corner and the ball hit the net via Craig Veal.

White was unlucky not to extend Town’s lead when he had another header from a Brett flag kick deflect onto the bar off Yate defender Matt Tanner but there was no mistake three minutes before the interval when Town added a second following neat play down the right, Dan Sullivan crossing for White to fire a fantastic volley over Harvey Rivers from the edge of the box.

The second half was somewhat uneventful as Town remained relatively untroubled, Rivers making a terrific reaction save to prevent Veal from adding a third while Lloyd Irish was not really tested at the other end. With Salisbury’s game postponed, the Peacocks now sit 12 points clear at the top of the table which they will hope to consolidate when Wimborne Town visit the Viridor Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Reaction | Manager Leigh Robinson remarked: “Another good away win to continue our excellent away record. It was a pretty forgettable game with few chances but I thought we were always in control. As Yate are so far the only team to beat us in the league we were determined to have the final word and in actual fact we owe them a lot of thanks as them beating us in September is the best thing that happened to us. Pleased enough to have got four points from two tricky away games this week especially as today basically became a game in hand. Another big step forwards and hopefully more to come in the rest of this busy month.”