Louth Town: Daryl Clare adds teeth to Wolves' bite

DARYL Clare says he will continue to roll up his sleeves as player-manager for Louth Town – even though he's not enjoying it.

A shortage of players has meant the former Grimsby Town striker has been in the thick of the action for the White Wolves, who travel to Hallam in the Baris Northern Counties East League Division One tomorrow.

After a run of three defeats, Louth have rallied with two comfortable home victories at Park Avenue.

On Wednesday night, the Wolves pounced on struggling Selby.

Top scorer Matt Kennedy, with a brace, and Callum Hyland were Louth's scorers in a 3-1 victory.

Although Clare has not been reviving his prolific non-league scoring record as a professional player, his experience and work ethic has given the mid-table Wolves added bite ahead of tomorrow's trip to Sheffield.

"I've being putting my boots on to show my lads I'm prepared to roll up my sleeves and get dirty with them out there," said Clare.

"I'm not really enjoying playing, but we're desperate for numbers."

Hallam are 13th in table after a 2-1 mid-week defeat to league leaders Athersley Recreation. Louth are tenth.

"We're looking forward to playing Hallam," said Clare.

"They play neat and clever football and are in good form. It will be a real test but we go into the game after two superb victories – a creative one and a battling one."

Louth assistant boss Carl Forman is delighted his team have improved as an attacking threat.

He said: "We are beginning to look really dangerous when we are attacking, which is why we have scored eight goals in our last two games.

"We go into a difficult away game tomorrow with good team spirit, rising confidence and a real determination,to bag another three points.

"We have a home game next Wednesday against Knaresborough in the league cup and we hope as many as possible will come to support the effort the players are putting in."

Louth were on attack from the kick-off against Selby. It only took minutes for some on-target shots from Jamie Coulson, Matt Kennedy and Andy Willoughby to test the visiting goalkeeper.

Once again, manager Clare set a high example which the other players matched in both quality and quantity of effort.

It wasn't long before the White Wolves scored a goal and top-scorer Matt Kennedy added another one to his collection, on 14 minutes.

After this, the shots came in thick and fast on Selby's goal.

Selby's Nathan Lovell was shown a yellow card for fouling and then Coulson made an on-target shot as the excitement built.

Hyland then made a particularly good scoring attempt that narrowly went over, but his hard work had not been for nothing when he finally scored in the 40th minute, making the score 2-0 to the home side.

Just before half-time, Louth made another attempt at Selby's goal but the shot just went narrowly wide.

Louth were on the attack as soon as the whistle for the second-half sounded but this time Selby attempted a couple of runs as well, only to be abruptly stopped by goalie Ian MacTaggert, who had played extremely well.

In the 71st minute, Selby were reduced to ten men after Nathan Lovell was shown another yellow and therefore a red.

Jonathan Walton and Andy Appleby came on for Willoughby and manager Clare in the 77th minute.

Two minutes later, Kennedy found the net again with an amazing long shot, making the score 3-0.

A minute later, Jack Potter came on for Kennedy and Selby put on Reuben Pearse for Josh Dinsley.

In the 82nd minute, Selby pulled one back through Mick Jones after a melee and made the score 3-1.

Just before the end, Potter put in a perfect through pass but unfortunately it didn't lead to a goal. But the points were safe by that stage.