Melton Town warm up for play-offs with away victory at Kimberley Town

Normally this would be a dead rubber with Melton guaranteed fourth place and Kimberley safe from relegation, but this is the first season that play-offs have been introduced and Melton will be there in two weeks time.

Boss Tom Manship vowed to utilise his whole squad in the final two games, trying to ensure no more injuries or suspensions, and on Saturday managed to use 14 players with no injuries and made it six wins out of the last eight.

He also picked up the Team of the Month Award for March after the game.

The final game of the regular season on Saturday is against Loughborough Students, who will probably be their play-off opponents the following week.

At Kimberley, Mulvaney had an early effort at goal from 20 yards out which was well saved by Smith in goal.

Clarke also tried his luck from 20 yards for the hosts which went inches wide.

But 15 minutes in and Melton drew first blood. Khalis Gore drove forward to the edge of the area and, after three stepovers, fired in a low strike which crept into the far corner of the net.

Mid-half, a ball was played into the area where Dube backheeled the ball to Fura whose first time effort was well saved.

Kimberley should have equalised on the half hour when a scramble in midfield saw the ball go through to Smith, who was clear on goal before a brilliant last ditch tackle from Beaver prevented the goal.

Just before the break a Fura and Harrison mix up had Jordan Alls facing an open goal from a tight angle, but his shot went across the goal line and away to safety.

On the hour mark a Kimberley quick break saw Lambert sending in a low shot which beat Harrison but was cleared off the line for a corner.

The corner found the far end of the box which was returned back to find Wheatley with a free header four yards out which he sent wide.

But Melton finally put the game to bed in the 67th minute when Fura played an exquisite ball behind Brown, which found Beaver.

He cut inside the defender before being tripped up and Anderson took the resulting penalty which the keeper got a hand to but couldn’t keep out because of the power of the shot.