Spennymoor Town 2 Alfreton 1.

Spennymoor won at the Brewery Field for the first time in five home games and lifted themselves up to fourth in the table – but manager Jason Ainsley admitted that he had a sense of déjà vu at one point.

Moors boss Jason Ainsley demanded a better home performance from his players after their let down last week against Gainsborough, and they responded well, although a late goal from Alfreton gave them a nervous moment.

But Ainsley revealed that he had a sense of déjà vu at half time. “Just like the previous game against Gainsborough, we’d played well in the first half and missed a few chances,” he said.

“We dominated the first half but couldn’t finish the game off. We played some lovely football and could have been three or four up.

“But at half time I was wondering if the same would happen again as last week. Fortunately, we started the second half better than last week and eventually Joe Tait’s penalty finished the game.

“We’ve played well at spells at home earlier in the season, but for one reason or another we didn’t get the results. The only disappointing thing was, that we didn’t keep a clean sheet.”

This was Moors’ sixth win in twelve league games, and Ainsley said; “This wasn’t a bad win at all, because Alfreton have some good players and were unbeaten in their previous seven matches.

“It was also important from our point of view to get a win, because we have a blank Saturday now, and we didn’t want to go into a two week break mulling over a bad result.

“The win keeps our momentum going. We said at the start of the season that we wanted to get some points on the board quickly, but I must admit that 21 points from our first twelve games has surpassed the target that we set ourselves.

“But we’re not naïve, we know that teams will work us out over the rest of the season and we’ll have to approach games differently.”

Moors played well in the first half, but they were nearly a goal down in the first minute when Ricky German burst through the middle and Moors’ keeper Jordan Porter saved well.

They went close on 8 minutes when Mark Anderson headed wide from a Chris Chantler cross, then Alfreton keeper Chris Elliott, who played for Consett in the Northern League, made a good stop from a Mattie Dixon shot.

Glen Taylor was then unlucky twice with efforts, the second of which brought about a corner which Dixon floated over for Shane Henry to head powerfully home to open the scoring.

Moors had the chances after that to make the game safe before half time. David Foley missed an easy chance from close range, Elliott made a great save from Kallum Griffiths, and Taylor curled another chance just wide.

Moors spurned another chance at the start of the second half when Foley broke through, but again Elliott saved and man of the match Griffiths fired a long range effort just over.

Alfreton then had three chances to level but missed them, and Moors finally got some breathing space on 83 minutes when Rob Ramshaw was brought down and skipper Joe Tait scored from the spot, his third of the season.

Alfreton pulled a goal back in the last minute when Ryan Jennings hit the bar from the edge of the box and Thomas Allen scored from the rebound.

There was still time for sub Brad Fewster to miss a good chance when he was put clean through.

Moors: Porter, Griffiths, Tait, Mason, Chantler, Dixon, Henry (sub Chandler 84), Ramshaw (sub Johnson 87), Anderson (sub Fewster 67), Foley, Taylor.

Attendance 634.

Moors aren’t in league action until a week on Saturday, when they are away to Southport.