Ian Rowe praises Sporting Khalsa for 'holding their nerve' in play-off race
Ian Rowe paid tribute to two goal hero James McGrady after Sporting Khalsa held their nerve to secure a play-off place.
McGrady’s brace sealed a 2-1 victory against Spalding who they will also face in Tuesday night’s play-off semi-final.
The striker pounced on a defensive mistake to open the scoring on 27 minutes and drilled in the winner after good work by Toumani Sidibe in the second half.
Lewis Hilliard had earlier thumped in a 35th minute penalty to cancel out McGrady’s opener.
“James has been superb all season but the last two months particularly and again has come up with the goals when we needed them today,” said Rowe.
“The whole team did well, we got off to a great start then they got a dubious penalty against the run of play which was frustrating. It was harsh but we didn’t allow it to get us down and we battled back.”
Sporting, who won five of their last six matches of the season, to secure a place in the Northern Premier League - Midland Division play-offs began the match under a lot of pressure with rivals Coleshill and Chasetown both able to leapfrog Rowe’s side if they had lost.
The fate of Rowe’s side remained in the balance at half-time and the Sporting boss made sure his players knew the situation.
“There was a lot of pressure because we knew Coleshill and Chastown were winning at half time and I told the players that at half time,” he added.
“People might have thought that that wasn’t the right thing to do as it added pressure but football is a pressurised environment and they responded brilliantly.”
