Magpies are four-midable

Magpies are four-midable Spartan South Midlands League Division One Sun Postal Sports 1 Colney Heath 4 COLNEY Heath produced some scintillating football on Saturday to thrash Sun Postal Sports and continue their charge for promotion to the South Midlands Premier Division. After some recent slip ups manager Craig Johnstone returned to his attacking mentality and picked a 4-3-3 formation. Johnstone said: "I changed the formation because we had been playing a bit more defensively, with a 4-4-2 recently and I didn't want to worry about the opposition anymore." Matt Chalkley replaced the injured Micky Hemmingway in attack and he immediately made an impact with the first goal. Wes Awad and Martin Standen combined to set up the striker who slid the ball home in the 11th minute. The second goal was scored when Dave Hewing found Standen and he laid the ball off for right back Dean Shuttleworth who crashed a fine shot into the top left hand corner for 2-0 on 20 minutes. The score quickly became 3-0 after 27 minutes when Lee Rickard drove home from 28 yards out after an Andy Sissons corner was partially cleared. Sun Postal hit back with a disputed penalty before half time but Colney Heath came out in the second period and dominated. The Magpies put together some fine moves and could have scored more, only for the Sun Postal 'keeper to twice deny the excellent Standen. The fourth goal for the visitors finally arrived in the 85th minute when substitute Dean Parrett picked up a poor clearance and curled the ball into the top right hand corner from 25 yards. Johnstone was delighted with the 4-1 win and praised former London Colney right back Dean Shuttleworth. He said: "Dean played ever so well at right back, he was very impressive. The fact he got forward to score the second showed the attacking nature of our team. It was fantastic for him to be up there. In contrast to last week, nearly all our players were on top form. Wes Awad is a big character for us and it was good to have him back, while Lee Rickard had his best game recently and Martin Standen played well. He was unfortunate not to get a goal at the end." The Heath boss is now hoping his side can continue their form when they face Winslow United at home on Saturday. Johnstone said: "We have had a bit of a block at home, losing our last three, so we need more of the same from the Sun Postal game. I expect to keep the 4-3-3 formation and we are going to go for it from now on.