DARREN Manning insists there is more to come from Hullbridge Sports.

A 2-1 win over Woodford Town allowed Sports to return to the Essex Senior League summit and already register more points than they registered in the whole of last season.

And Manning, who took the top job at the Ryan’s Heating Stadium 13 months ago, has challenged Hullbridge to kick on after an impressive first half of the campaign.

“I’m extremely proud of the fact that we have already got more points than we did in the whole of last season,” said Manning.

“That is down to the group of players and management we have here alongside the people off the pitch driving us forward with their support.

“It’s a huge achievement but we feel there is a lot more to come and we are only scraping the tip of the iceberg with the potential of this group.”

Having already amassed 46 points from their first 20 Essex Senior League fixtures of the season, Hullbridge find themselves two points clear of second-placed Stansted and have a game in hand.

Sports’ current situation is in stark contrast to where they found themselves last term.

Manning moved into the hotseat with Hullbridge struggling, but he eventually led Sports to a 15th place finish with 45 points.

Hullbridge’s latest victory came against Woodford, who were forced to play more than 70 minutes of the Essex Senior League clash with 10 men after Luke Edgar was sent off.

The breakthrough game after 62 minutes as Nathan Scarborough’s strike was blocked by goalkeeper Alex Reed only for defender Bailey Brown to put through his own net.

But their lead lasted just seven minutes as Dejaune Taylor-Crossdale levelled matters.

It looked as though the 10 men were going to hold on for a share of the spoils, but Michael Salako grabbed the winner with just six minutes to play.

And Manning felt the fixture was a prime example of how it can be more difficult to play against a team down to 10 men.

The Sports boss added: “It was a very professional performance.

“Woodford are a top side and showed a lot of maturity for such a young team.

“Their defensive shape was top notch and made it hard for us to break them down.

“Credit to us as well because we stuck to our job and got the result we needed.

“It shows it can be harder playing against 10 men and I would have preferred to have played them with 11 as they would have been more courageous in their attacking play.”