NEIL Sorvel urged Altrincham’s players to retain their new-found mean streak after they closed in on the National League North play-off places with two emphatic home wins in the space of three days.

After seeing off Ashton United 3-0 on Saturday, in-form Alty followed up with a crushing 4-0 defeat of struggling Nuneaton Borough on Tuesday night to move to within three points of a play-off position with a game in hand.

While the goals continued to flow – particularly for winger John Johnston, who scored a brace in each game – it was two successive clean sheets that encouraged Sorvel most, ahead of Saturday’s trip to Hereford.

"Defensively, we looked really solid, just as we did on Saturday," said Alty’s assistant manager.

"Nuneaton never looked like breaking us down, and I can only remember one real opportunity for Ashton, so that tells you how solid we are looking at the moment.

"We need to keep that going, if we are to get where we want to be.

"We knew this double-header was really important for us to make a bit of headway, so it’s now all about finding some consistency in terms of clean sheets.

"We are scoring plenty, but if we want to be up there we need to keep improving our goal difference by conceding less.

"We’ve got a good enough squad – it’s about playing at the level we are capable of week-in, week-out.

"It has been a positive few days for us and we’ve got to be really pleased with seven goals scored and none conceded in two games.

"John Johnston was a threat all night. You could see how worried they were about his pace, and it was just a shame he couldn’t manage a hat-trick after Jordan Hulme set him up.

"Jordan then did brilliantly for the fourth goal by Josh Hancock, so though he was frustrated at not scoring himself, he contributed plenty."

There was welcome news on James Poole after he pulled up with what looked a serious hamstring problem against Ashton.

It is only a ‘slight tear’ and he should be back in two to three weeks.