Jarow Roofing win welcome, but there's still a lot of work to do '“ Richie McLoughlin

Richie McLoughlin praised his Jarrow Roofing side for a 'job well done' after seeing them defeat Newcastle Benfield 3-0 on Saturday.

But the Roofing supremo warned his squad that it means nothing yet and there is plenty of work still to do – starting with tomorrow night’s visit to Newton Aycliffe.

On a day that finished with Washington and Billingham Synthonia’s relegation from the Northern League Division One, Roofing travelled to Benfield and kept themselves in the race for survival.

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Dennis Knight gave the Roofers a dream start when he capitalised in Andrew Grainger’s passing mistake to roll the ball into an empty net.

Shaun Vipond played a ball forward and John Campbell raced through to calmly finish and double the lead.

When Benfield were able to fashion an opening on goal, Dan Regan was in fine form.

The South Tynesiders opened the second half strongly and Knight grabbed a third, and his 24th goals of the season.

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Lewis Walton’s cross-field ball was collected by Knight, and twisting inside two defenders he let fly from the edge of the box to leave Grainger with no chance.

There was a nervy final 10 minutes for the Roofers as Vipond received two yellow cards in the space of a minute to leave the visitors with 10 men, but the defence stood firm to claim a vital three points.

Roofing remain six points behind Bishop Auckland, but with two games in hand, while they are also six behind Penrith, but with four in hand on the Cumbrians.

McLoughlin was quick to change his focus to the next game as he plots survival, he said: “Tuesday isn’t an end of the world game as we have eight games left, but we have to aim to win them all.

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“The organisation and commitment from the lads was first class, but now we must look to Tuesday and take the game to Aycliffe.

“We must not let the win go to our heads, as we did after the Ashington win.

“Now we get back to concentrating, forget Benfield, look forward to Tuesday and continue the hard work and organisation.”

Hard work will be needed in abundance as Roofing follow up Tuesday’s game by hosting Aycliffe on Saturday, and also West Auckland on Thursday night.