THIRD placed South Woodham Ferrers secured a narrow 29-28 win at Holt in London Two North East.

The victory kept Woodham six points behind table-topping Diss with two games in hand.

And head coach Tony Woods was delighted to keep his side’s good run going.

“Saturday was a real battle and, with numerous changes in the starting line-up, everyone called into the team deserves their individual accolades,” said Woods.

“Sammy Sharp not only was man of the match but made yards all afternoon and time after time chopped down their big runners with his excellent tackling ability.

“To win on Saturday, in the manner we did, shows we can compete in this league and this last effort could make a huge difference at the end of the season.”

Woodham were missing some key players at the weekend and Holt initially looked like capitalising as they raced into a 13-0 lead.

However, Woodham hit back just before the break with Ryan Gateson touching down for his second try of the season.

After the break, Jake Rawinsky also broke free to cut Holt’s lead to 13-10 before Woodham scored the try of the game as Leon Gateson finished off a fine move which, once converted by Adam Brown, put the visitors 17-13 in front.

Moments later, a rolling maul resulted in Ryan Marshall also touching down to secure Woodham a try scoring bonus point and a 22-13 lead.

However, Holt soon sparked back into life and an unconverted try and a penalty saw them then cut Woodham’s lead to just a single point.

Holt’s pressure then led to Woodham’s Ross Noakes being yellow carded before they regained the lead with a well worked try to leave the score at 28-22 with six minutes to go.

However, Woodham continued to battle and, with their forwards starting to take control, a well worked inside pass from Joe Dukelow enabled Sharp to stretch for the line just outside the points.

Baker showed maturity beyond his 18 years to add the conversion as Woodham ran out winners.