CALNE Town earned three points the hard way on Saturday by beating Welton Rovers 2-1 away from home in Toolstation Division One to remain top of the table.

Ben Redford couldn’t hide his concern regarding several missed opportunities in front of Rovers’ net, but being able to slot two past their defensive opponents certainly satisfied the Town boss.

Rovers rarely showed any signs of wanting to press forward despite taking the lead in the game’s opening minutes through Dylan Hatt.

Second-half strikes from substitute Jake Allen and the clinical Stuart Windsor wrapped up another three points for Redford’s confidence-high squad, who this weekend face mid-table Portishead Town.

Redford hasn’t yet adjusted his side’s targets for the season. The manager is all too aware how teams’ fortunes can change at the lower end of non-league football to do so.

He added: “We’re doing really well at the moment, and our target hasn’t changed from the start of the season.

“It’s about enjoying it while we are there because you never know how long we’re going to be at the top of this division for.

“Welton Rovers, without sounding too harsh, are the worst team we have played. Their goal was gifted – an unusual error at the back cost us.

“Even when it was 0-0, Welton didn’t want to attack us. And we had four clear chances in the first half and missed them all – on another day we could have bagged four or even five goals.

“We got three points in the end, but at one point we did think it was going to be one of those games.”

Creating chances certainly isn’t an issue for Redford ahead of this weekend’s trip to Portishead.

Given the volume of openings his men created against a Welton side that regularly got 10 men behind the ball, the Calne boss is hopeful additional chances can be created this weekend against a Portishead team that has won as many games as they have lost this term.

Redford added: “We created enough chances to win the game more comfortably than we eventually did.

“Those games are the best ones to win – when a team shuts up shop and you pick up a late win it’s a great feeling.

“It’s good we can create chances, though a bit concerning we didn’t put them away – previously it has been the opposite.

“Portishead are a bit up and down – you can never tell what they are going to do.

“They won’t be as bad as they have been for the past few years, I know that for a fact.

“They’ve had some good results, but we’ll enter this one with the same attitude.

“Any levels of complacency, and we will get beat.”

Elsewhere in Toolstation Division One, struggling Warminster Town lost 2-1 away to Ashton & Backwell United and as a result dropped to 17th.

Devizes Town drew 0-0 at Portishead Town, though there were better fortunes for Corsham who won 4-1 at home to Almondsbury.