RICHMOND Town made it six league wins in a row with a comfortable 3-0 win over South Shields Reserves at Earls Orchard.

Once again the pitch proved very difficult to play on as a result of the recent wet weather. This the third successive weekend Town have been given a home fixture, with one more scheduled next Saturday. The fixtures committee have been unkind to Town and the pitch which isn't getting time to recover in between games.

A brace of Simon Pinkney headers gave Richmond a 2-0 half time lead, but if there was to be one criticism of the performance, it was the fact that they weren't out of sight at the interval. The first came in the 25th minute from a corner kick with great credit going to Dave Gibson who beat two men as he forced his way into the box and produce a shot which was only parried by Shields keeper Jack Ramage, with Pinkney in the right place to nod the ball home. His second coming eight minutes later from another corner which was powered into the net. Scott Ryan had three chances, two of which brought saves from Ramage the second of which resulted in a clearance off the line by Sam Urwin, the other just high of the target. All three should in reality have been converted. Jason Newall went close also, but his shot was deflected wide. South Shields only real chance came via their captain Graham Stephenson who headed over from an excellent David Loch cross.

Pinkney was again at the centre of the action after fifty three minutes when once more in the visitors box for another corner he was fouled by Tommy Conroy. The centre half may wish he'd taken the penalty kick himself after seeing Ben Darville's shot go straight down the middle with Ramage diving to his left, but managed to save with his right leg. There was more frustration for Ryan when another chance went begging. Again Ramage denied the front man who from the rebound put the ball wide. Gibson having a good game down Richmond's left flank tried his luck from twenty five yards but was dealt with comfortably by the busy keeper. South Shields had an opportunity to get back into the game, albeit against the run of play when Richmond keeper Mark Walker miskicked his attempted clearance following Lewis Cocks' back pass. The youngster immediately making amends when he denied Ali Aleagha with his legs when a goal looked a certainty. Back up the other end of the pitch, Ryan was to quick for substitute Colin Nesbitt who this time made no mistake firing across Ramage and into the net to make it 3-0 with sixty eight minutes on the clock . Conroy had a shot from distance which he curled over but there was never going to be any come back from the visitors. Ryan had the ball in the net once more after seventy five minutes but was ruled offside after Darville had a shot come back off the post before going close again when his shot was deflected wide of the post after good work by Chris Pattison. Minutes before the final whistle substitute Adam Walker produced a fine cross but Darville couldn't get the touch which would have taken it into the net and Pinkney just missed out on a hat trick when he headed a Ryan corner over.

Kalumn Holbrook was used as a seventy first minute substitute, his first appearance since the final day of last season when he dislocated his knee for a second time, adding more competition for places in an already very strong midfield which was missing Mike Layfield because of injury but Josh Cartlidge stepped in and produced a dominant performance and was a deserved man of the match. Town manager Jonathan Kellett said after " It should really have been a lot more, but that's two weeks in succession where we've scored three goals. We'd settle for that every week. Next week we have a real test against Cleator Moor Cletic who are title contenders. I know we have several players missing for that game, which opens the door for those who have been on the fringes of the starting eleven recently."

Kick off at Earls Orchard for the visit of the Cumbrians is at 2pm.