IT wasn't the cold that turned the air blue in Huntley last Saturday. Village soccer manager Jon Matthews admits it was his half-time team talk!

"It had to be said. I was a bit stern but it seemed to do the trick and we overcame a two goal deficit to win the game," said Matthews.

For the second time this term Huntley put the skids under their close neighbours having won by the same margin at Mitcheldean earlier in the season.

"We have been keen rivals for a long time. It was a good, competitive game and we had to hold on at the end. We hit them on the break for the winner and I thought we deserved the success," said Matthews.

Huntley's victory moved them up to a comfortable midtable position and at the same time dented second-placed Mitcheldean's ambitions.

"The result did us a bit of good and was an excellent one for the club. Like other village sides we are strong enough when we can field a full team but struggle when we have injuries and players unavailable. We could do with a bit more strength in depth," he said.

Matthews says goal scoring is not a great problem for his team. His brother Mark has already netted 17 league goals and is being hotly chased for the top scorer title by Will Freeman and Richard Tilling.

"We had a poor start to the season so there are no cup matches to get in our way and we can concentrate on the league. What we need is a little more consistency," he says.

Matthews thought Mitcheldean deserved to be ahead, though not by a two goal margin.

"We had played better than that and I had to give the players a bit of a rocket at half-time. It did the trick and we played much better after that though we had to hang on as Mitcheldean came back very strongly before we hit them on the break with the winning goal seven or eight minutes from time," he said.

The fightback began with a goal by Will Freeman after the Mitcheldean keeper had fended off a powerful shot by Mark Matthews. Ten minutes later Rich Tilling levelled the scores.

Mitcheldean posed plenty of problems but Huntley broke from deep and the winner came from Daniel Payne who came in from the right and beat the keeper at the near post.