WARRINGTON Rylands returned to winning ways as they picked up a key victory over Whitby Town at Gorsey Lane.
Despite being without the services of leading goalscorer Adama Sidibeh, Blues were 1-0 victors as his strike partner Mo Touray took centre stage.
Touray struck the only goal four minutes before half time as Rylands cut the gap to league leaders Radcliffe, who were in FA Trophy action, to six points.
Michael Clegg's side were indebted to goalkeeper Luke Pilling for saving a second-half penalty from Jacob Grattan to keep them ahead, but the manager believes they did just enough to secure victory.
And having switched to a three-man defence, Clegg was pleased to see his side show their adaptability.
"It was a scrappy game," he said.
"Luke saved a penalty but until the last 20 minutes when they were pushing, I thought we’d shaded it.
"We’ve had a couple of chances but it was scrappy.
"Whitby are a really good side. We tried a new shape which made us sound defensively. We looked a bit lost going forward but we’ve not had much time to work on it.
"We recruited in the summer for 3-5-2 but we’ve not had chance to play it with injuries.
"Then when we were doing so well with 4-3-3, we didn’t want to change it but it’s good to be flexible.
"I think they were surprised with the set-up – with Adama’s pace and how quick we’ve been going forward, a few teams have found out how to make us struggle so we’ve got to be flexible.
"We’ve got to have more strings to our bow and we showed that today."
Sidibeh, whose 15-goal haul has attracted the attention of clubs higher up the football pyramid, missed this afternoon's game through illness.
There was, however, a Blues debut for Warrington-born striker Dan Cockerline, whose arrival from Newcastle Town was confirmed yesterday. He replaced Owen German for the final 10 minutes at Gorsey Lane.
Warrington Rylands: Pilling, Smith, Swaby-Neavin (Baillie), Butler, Regan, Neild, Hardcastle, Furman, Pedro, Touray (Hough), German (Cockerline). Subs not used: Adams, Hurst
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