Newmarket Town manager Michael Shinn praises ‘special’ squad after derby victory against Mildenhall Town

Newmarket Town triumphed where 10 other sides had failed on Tuesday evening by beating Mildenhall Town in a Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division encounter.

The faultless visitors made the short journey down the A11 boasting a perfect record in the league so far this term to sit top of the table with a maximum of 30 points.

But the hosting Jockeys have also flown out of the traps, so much so that their 1-0 victory on the night saw them leapfrog Mildenhall at the summit by a point – albeit having played two more games.

And make no mistake about it, this was no fluke. Mildenhall, who ran out 3-0 winners over Kirkley & Pakefield at the weekend, were kept at arm’s length for much of the contest.

Newmarket ran all over their diamond in midfield, created overloads down both flanks and if there was to be one criticism, it was that they did not win by a greater margin.

The 2023/24 campaign is, of course, still very much in its infancy, but Newmarket boss Michael Shinn believes that he has a ‘special’ group at his disposal.

“We knew we’d have to work extremely hard against Mildenhall’s diamond in midfield, but we knew as well that we could cause them problems,” he said.

“If we get three (goals) tonight, I don’t think that’s undeserved. We got the ball into some really good areas that enabled us to get some two versus ones down the sides.

“I never doubted these boys would give everything. Even the boys that came on, they knew their roles.

“I knew this group was something special when we played Witham in pre-season. I saw everything that day – determination to win a game, when it kicked off everybody was there.

“These boys are extremely together and at no point in that 90 minutes did that change. Everybody stuck together, which is something that this group does really, really well.

“And then with the quality we’ve got going forward and our defensive capabilities, we’ve got something good. We knew we had to be at it tonight because every time we’ve played Mildenhall since I’ve been here the games have been like that – end to end and so much happens.

“Since I’ve been here we’ve either had a really good group that sticks together or a really good group in terms of ability.

“I’m not sure we’ve ever had both, but at this moment in time we’ve got both. If we have a little run where results don’t go our way then we’ll see the character, but I think these boys will stick together regardless.

“Are they the best group I’ve had ability wise? It’s pretty close, I think it would be the toss of a coin. But what gives them the edge is that they are prepared to work really hard for each other.”

The match-winner for Newmarket was Josh Lee, who just happened to arrive at the Tristel Stadium from Mildenhall in the summer.

Lee tended to play out wide during his stint at Mildenhall, yet Shinn has entrusted him with the centre-forward role – and it has paid off handsomely.

The birthday boy’s towering header in the 51st minute was his 11th goal for Newmarket and sent him joint top of the Premier Division’s scoring charts.

“We’ve trusted him. We had a very good number nine in Matt Hayden but we went with Josh and he’s been excellent,” added Shinn.

“I can suffer him getting in front of goal and missing a couple like he did tonight because the rest of it, his work-rate for the team and desire to keep getting in there to put centre-halves under pressure was fantastic.

“People might forget but he’s still very young. We keep getting approaches for him but he doesn’t want to go anywhere, which says that he knows he’s learning here.

“We love him and he loves being here. He’s scoring goals and at the moment it’s working for him.

“There might come a moment or a spell where he doesn’t score as many goals as he likes, but he’ll need to stick with it because come the end of the season he’ll have at least 20.

“It starts with that hard work part. I’ve told him not to focus on goals, do the work and get between the posts when the ball goes wide and see what happens, which is what he did for the goal.

“I also should say that Weaves did right by him in the summer. When he decided Josh wasn’t going to feature every week, he rung me up straight away to let me know he was available – not a lot of people would do that.”

Lee had a couple of chances late on to put the outcome beyond doubt, while in the first half Ryan Cole saw his penalty kick saved by Mildenhall goalkeeper Josh Pope, who also kept out Ally Conway with a brave double save.

Cole also struck the crossbar from distance and Ben Robinson blazed over when well placed, while Mildenhall also hit the woodwork a couple of times themselves through Jarid Robson and Callum Anderson.

The challenge now for Mildenhall – who were just one of three teams at Steps 1-6 across the entire country to boast 100 per cent records before the game – is to react, starting on Saturday at home against Sheringham in the Isuzu FA Vase (3pm).

Player-boss Phil Weavers said: “Fair play to Newmarket, they deserved to win. They were sharper than us, more aggressive. It’s been a monumental effort from us.

“When you get on a run like we’ve been on, it turns every game into a cup final mentality and that’s draining – physically, mentally, emotionally.

“It sort of becomes a burden that you carry, but obviously we’re disappointed to lose.

“Yet 10 wins straight off the bat is an amazing achievement and nobody can take that away from us.

“The performance was disappointing but you’ve also got to hold your hands, Newmarket were better. They made us look poor at times and Popey has kept us in it.

“This was always going to come, we were always going to get beat at some stage. What will define our season is how we bounce back.

“It’s important we don’t get into a rut, starting on Saturday with Sheringham in the cup. We’ll take stock a little bit now and look to go again.”