AN EARLY strike from Luke Hopper gave injury-hit Swindon Supermarine the perfect cure as it was enough to see of North Leigh.

The win was only Supermarine's second home win of the season and manager Dave Webb was pleased with how his thread-bare squad performed.

“It was an excellent win against a really good side,” he said.

“They’re as good as any team in this league for me. Player for player they have got a good side but what an effort by my team today and the effort and commitment they showed for each other.

“We got an early lead and defended magnificently.

“The work ethic of the group and the way they played today was second to none, I thought they were superb today.

“I’ll be glad when I am not talking about injuries but they seem to keep coming, but we managed to get 14 players on the pitch today and everyone of them has contributed.

“It’s another clean sheet and that is what we have worked on and for me that is a proper game of football and that is what I want to see our team doing.

“You can see that they are playing for the club and that is what I want to see.”

With just three minutes on the clock, Bradley Gray played in a fairly innocuous cross with little options in the box.

North Leigh keeper Matt Bulman made a hash of collecting the ball though and it fell to the feet of Hopper who tapped home into an empty net.

The visitors came close to bringing the game level just two minutes later when Scott Beven failed to deal with a cross and a combination of the woodwork and Sam Warrell maintained the early advantage.

North Leigh continued to press for an equaliser and thought they had done enough in the 23rd minute when Jamie Cook played a neat one-two with Conor Ingram to finish past Warrell but the linesman ruled it offside.

The home side had a chance to double their lead just before the break when Bulman again struggled to handle the ball under pressure for a cross but nobody in a blue shirt could turn the ball home.

It was a second half of little chances, with the best falling to Hopper in the 75th minute when he was played in by Ryan Stanners but his first time shot from the edge of the box failed to trouble Bulman in goal.

Chris Taylor thought he had scored straight from a free-kick from wide on the right but the referee blew for a foul on Bulman, and the midfielder went close again minutes later with an effort from the edge of the box but it went just wide.