Manager Garry Kimble admitted that it was a pleasant experience to see the Ryman League division north formbook get “turned upside down” as Witham Town secured a valuable three-point haul at Thurrock.

Witham headed to Thurrock having taken just five points from their previous 11 league games and still glancing over their shoulder at the relegation scrap going on just below them, while the hosts were riding high in third place.

However, late goals from Tom Cocklin and Nathan Koranteng gave Witham a 2-1 win and boss Kimble was relieved to see his team come out on the right side of a tight scoreline for a change.

He said: “Everyone thought we’d go there and get rolled over, but we turned the formbook upside down.

“It was pleasing again to see us compete against another of the top sides in the division.

“We’ve only been beaten by the odd goal in a lot of those games, so it was really nice to go to Thurrock and reverse that.

“I think Thurrock must think of us as their bogey team as we beat them in the FA Cup as well earlier in the season.

“What is pleasing is that their side on Saturday was much stronger than the one they put out in the cup, but we had enough about us and the players showed determination and grit to get the result. It gives us a platform to work on as we’ve won two of our last three games now and if you take out the second half against Brightlingsea, we’ve performed really well for two and a half of the last three.

“The confidence that you get when you get it right is so important.

“Everyone knows that we’d only had one league win since November and you sometimes feel like you don’t know where the next win is going to come from, but we’ve now seen two-and-a-half good performances in the last three games.

“It’s all about togetherness now and building on this.

“I think we still need three or four more wins out of our remaining 14 games to be really safe so we have to make sure we keep competing.”

Witham will be hoping to build on their win when they host Aveley at the Village Glass Stadium on Saturday, but Kimble knows that his team will have to work hard for any points again.

He said: “Aveley have tended to be our bogey team in recent seasons and we haven’t played well against them.

“You know what you will get with a Justin Gardener side as they will be strong and will get in your face so we have to match that.

“I won’t change anything, but all I say to the lads is that we now have momentum and we need to get a real winning habit.

“We need to keep that will to win.

“We showed that on Saturday at Thurrock when we put bodies on the line and that pleased me. I was happy for the players as we have all taken a lot of stick this year.

“Not from within the club as they have been very patient, but this year has been a big learning curve for me.

“It has been a total rebuild, but what a difference a week makes and we now have to make sure that goes over into two, three and four weeks and beyond.

“I hope we have enough quality now to get goals and keep them out at the other end.”