SAM Wilson reserved special praise for Warrington Rylands' defenders after Blues secured a huge victory in their chase for a play-off place.

Monday's 2-0 victory over Marine made it maximum points over the Easter weekend for Rylands as they edged closer to securing their spot in the top five by beating a fellow promotion contender.

Goals in either half from Mo Touray and Djavan Pedro made the difference, but player/interim co-manager Wilson was keen to heap praise upon those further back for the role they played.

"The defensive lads were fantastic and without them and the platform they build, everything in front doesn’t happen," he said.

"Mo and DJ didn’t get an awful lot of chances today with it being a tight game, so for them to take the ones they did get is every credit to them.

"We kept them out of our box really well. A special mention to the back four and Luke (Pilling) – without naming individuals, I thought they were absolutely outstanding in their defending of the box. It’s something we speak about often."

Touray slid home the opener having been found by skipper James Neild, allowing Rylands to edge ahead in what was a tight game.

Then as Marine pushed for a response after half time, they were dealt a hammer blow by Pedro's excellent finish from just outside the area in the early stages of the second half.

And Blues were able to see out the game without too much alarm to keep them second in the Northern Premier League Premier Division, with their cushion inside the top five now eight points.

"It’s huge," Wilson said.

"Any sort of points at this stage of the season are crucial and for us, it was just another three we were aiming to get.

"People will say they’re a close rival and are fighting for the play-offs with us, so there might be an added significance to it, but we’re just seeing it as another three points.

"Mo took his chance really well. Whoever took their chance was always going to end up with a stronger foothold in the game and thankfully, it came for us.

"We expect Mo to take chances in those areas and he did.

"Goals change games – we expected them to come out stronger and we knew it would be a tense game.

"We did feel another goal would probably finish it off as we were really strong defensively, and DJ took his goal exceptionally well like Mo did."