WARRINGTON Rylands have picked up their first league victory under the management of Neil Reynolds.
And in doing so, they have moved off the bottom of the Northern Premier League Premier Division table.
Blues had their goalkeeper Luke Pilling to thank for ensuring a 1-0 win at Leek Town, keeping up his incredible penalty-saving record by keeping out another spot kick after Ben Hardcastle had put the visitors ahead just after half time.
Rylands are still in the relegation zone but are now just a point from safety having jumped from 22nd to 19th in the table ahead of a trip to league leaders Macclesfield on Saturday.
Blues stopper 'the best in the league'
Pilling's 75th-minute penalty save was the fourth he has made in recent weeks, with the other three coming during the FA Trophy shoot-out win over Stocksbridge Park Steels earlier this month.
And after his huge role in guiding Rylands to their first win under his management, Reynolds was keen to lavish praise on his number one.
"I’ve got the best goalkeeper in the league," he said.
"I don’t care what anybody says. It’s not just his penalty saves – it’s his shot-stopping, his aerial ability, his calmness.
"I didn’t realise how good he was until I came to the football club. He’s superb.
"I’m delighted for the lads in the dressing room and everyone involved with the club.
"Even after Saturday’s defeat, there was a real togetherness and belief. People could see we were going in the right direction.
"We turned up here tonight and for the first 25 minutes, I thought we were excellent.
"We lost our way a bit having not scored when we were on top, but we told the lads at half time to keep the belief and we came out for the second half like a train.
"We had to weather the pressure, they get a penalty and it’s another great save from Pills.
"That’s an amazing win – we haven’t won in the league for a while so we had to learn to win again.
"We’ve got to keep that feeling and if we do that, we’ll be successful more times than we’re not.
"There’s still a long way to go for this football team, but we’re going in the right direction."
Check out Reynolds' full post-match reaction below
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