THE first goal will be “all-important” for Warrington Town when they travel to face Grantham Town on Saturday, according to manager Stuart Mellish says.

The Yellows make the trip to Lincolnshire on the back of a three-match unbeaten run in the Northern Premier League’s top flight.

They will be determined as well to avenge a defeat on home soil earlier this season.

Grantham came away from Cantilever Park with a 1-0 victory in August, 20 but Mellish says his side have nothing to fear this weekend.

He is also adamant that scoring first will lead to maximum points returning to Warrington.

“We just have to be patient and make sure we get the first goal, that’s all-important on Saturday,” he said.

“If we do then we win the game, it’s as simple as that.

“I’m in no doubt we can do it, we were very unfortunate to lose the home game against them.

“We dominated for 30 minutes, but they got a controversial goal and just sat back on it. We couldn’t break them down but I’m confident we will on Saturday.”

Town go into the game on the back of an impressive 4-1 home victory over Ilkeston last Saturday.

John Shaw marked his debut for the club in fine style by adding his name to the scoresheet alongside Gerard Kinsella, Ben Deegan and Ciaran Kilheeney.

Mellish says Saturday’s victory has done wonders for the squad’s morale and showed the ability is there to do well in their first ever season in the Evo-Stik Premier Division.

“We put in a great performance on Saturday and showed that we are a good side when we get it right,” he said.

“It’s a great result for us and it’s given everyone a bit of a lift.

“We’ve always known and maintained that we are a good side, we just needed a bit of confidence and Saturday really helped with that.

“We feel like we’re up and running now – we’re learning all the time about managing games which can only serve us well as we move forward.”

Defender Shaw started alongside Jay McCarten in the heart of the Yellows’ defence and made an instant impact, stretching to fire home from Scott Metcalfe’s corner.

The 29-year-old, who can list Marine and Witton Albion among his former clubs, arrived at Cantilever Park last week from Stalybridge Celtic and Mellish says his signature is “a huge coup” for the club.

“John did really well, he’s not played for a few weeks so to come straight in and perform like that shows the quality he has,” he said.

“He’s come in on loan from Stalybridge initially but with the changes going on there, the chances are it could become permanent.

“I’ve admired John as a player for a while, we tried to recruit him three or four years ago but to have him here now is a huge coup for us.”

Warrington now sit ninth in the Evo-Stik Premier Division table, four points outside the play-off places.

They have also hit a hot-streak in front of goal, hitting the net 10 times in their past three league outings.

However, Mellish says such a statistic does not come as a surprise.

“We’ll always score goals, that’s as close to a given as it gets with the players we have at our disposal in attack,” he said.

“The worry for us has been the other end.

“We’ve been a bit naïve, but hopefully the arrival of John Shaw can improve us in that respect.”