CARL Macauley said Witton Albion’s perseverance had earned a deserved reward after Tom Owens’ late goal sunk Stourbridge on Tuesday.

It secured for his side a fourth successive win in the Northern Premier League’s top-flight – their best sequence of the season.

“There’s no doubt it’s a huge result for us,” said the Witton boss.

“I think we deserved to take three points because we kept on plugging away.

“Coincidentally we’d talked before the game about how it might take us 90 minutes to score a goal because we expected Stourbridge to make it difficult for us.

“That’s exactly what they did; they came here to do a professional job and be difficult for us to beat.

“The message to our players was ‘keep going’ and sometimes that persistence can be enough to get you a result.”

A 1-0 victory sent Witton up to sixth in the Premier Division table, although they have the same number of points as fifth-placed Shaw Lane – opponents they sent packing from Wincham Park at the weekend.

Macauley saved praise for substitutes Micah Evans and Paul Williams after they both made an impact – the latter taking a corner from which Owens stooped to head the game’s only goal.

He added: “We tried to be positive with the changes we made.

“Micah gave us a bit of quality in wide positions because he can go past people in a one-on-one situation.

“We still needed something extra though, and Paul Williams is a player that can open teams up if he can take possession and use the quality he has with the ball at his feet.

“It was a gamble that paid off.”