SUPERMARINE ground out a 2-1 victory at Clevedon in the Southern Premier to make it nine league wins on the spin.

Victories for Hungerford and Poole meant Dave Webb’s side remained in third but they nonetheless kept the heat on their rivals.

Clevedon had a couple of decent chances early on before Ash Edenborough hit the side-netting when he received a pass from Josh Parsons, who might have shot himself.

Edenborough was then denied a spot kick after he appeared to be brought down by ex-Marine stopper Lee Matthews.

The scoring was opened six minutes after the break when defender Danny Allen broke down the left and his shot was deflected into the net by Sam Morris.

Reeko Best slotted past Kent Kauppinen with a quarter of an hour left, but within seconds the away side were level.

Sam Morris found space on the left flank and sent in a searching cross that was powerfully headed in by Parsons.

“The winner came much to the dismay of their bench who were going ballistic,” said Marine boss Webb.

“They couldn’t understand why someone who’s five foot six was heading it in the net against their six-footers at the back.

“It was a really tough game overall, if we’d had any more rain I think it would have been off.

“The officials didn’t seem very happy with the condition of the pitch before the game, but both teams wanted to play it.

“The pitch was extremely heavy and it was one of those games where it was never going to be pretty.

“It was always going to be about who made the least mistakes and we were the ones that went on to win it.”

Webb also praised his captain Dave Bampton for his impact on the other players during the clash.

The manager said: “We have a group that want to continue to win games and that’s important, because we’ll have a lot more of those sort of games between now and the end of the season.

“We ground it out because we have a bunch of lads who are desperate not to lose. That comes from the skipper Dave Bampton who has shown why he is the leader of the side.

“He was an example from start to finish and he made sure everyone around him wanted it as much as he did. He showed his true quality.”

Marine are scheduled to visit bottom club Sholing in the league on Wednesday but with temperatures set to plummet, the game could be in doubt.

“I’ve heard it’s going to get horrendously cold now,” added Webb.

“If the game’s on it gives us the opportunity for us to get into double figures of wins. We’re in buoyant mood and we look forward to it.”