It was a case of heads we win at Hampton and Richmond as Billericay Town lifted themselves up four places into the top ten of the Ryman League Premier Division with their second 2-1 away win in the space of four days.

The biggest shock to start with was that, after heavy rain throughout the day, Tuesday's match went ahead on a notoriously heavy Hampton playing surface.

However, apart from one particularly sticky channel down the middle, the pitch held up well and there was no scoring in the opening 45 minutes.

Billericay, having started to ease fears of being dragged into the relegation battle with Saturday's success at St Albans, were determined to keep up the good work - despite falling behind to a 56th minute penalty from home skipper Jason Shaw after a handball offence.

Hampton are by no means clear of the fight to avoid the big drop themselves . . . despite a recent good run which included victory at second-placed Canvey . . . and their troubles worsened as the visitors won the game with two headed goals in little more than two minutes from the 67 minute mark.

First Dave Culverhouse rose to apply the finishing touch to a Justin Gentle free-kick from the left with his first goal of the season.

Hampton hardly had time to recover before it was a case of deja vu with Paul Linger converting another Gentle set piece from the same area to wrap-up another important three point haul in which ex Leyton Orient winger Joe Baker was again star man.

What makes Billericay's recent run particularly impressive is the fact that it's been achieved at a time when they've had the heart ripped out of the centre of their defence with Kirk Game, Chris Moore and Steve Conner all on the injured list.

With utility man Lee Williams only fit enough for a place on the bench last night, skipper Dean Parratt unavailable due to family illness, and Russell Penn not yet back from university studies at Loughborough, Town's first team squad was again severely depleted.

However, the 47 point tally they now stand on surely means that relegation fears are a thing of the past and they can look forward with confidence to making it three wins in a row on Saturday when Basingstoke Town are the visitors to New Lodge.

Who knows, with eight Premier games to go, Billericay might not finish too far away from manager Gary Calder's pre-season aim of a first term top six placing to start the club's five-year plan.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.