IAN Long claims patience turned out to be order of the day as Tividale notched up 40 points following a gritty 1-0 victory over struggling Kidsgrove Athletic.

Danny Ashton scored the solitary goal of the game with 14 minutes to play, meeting a sweet cross from the right hand side of the penalty area by Jordan Archer and Long was pleased with yet another three precious points.

He said “It was an excellent three points to follow up our impressive display at Spalding last weekend.

“Credit to Kidsgrove, they set up very well and made things difficult for us.

“Having missed the penalty early doors, we had to remain patient thereafter before Danny finally got the winner.”

Tivi’s players have now reached the initial target of 40 points having been promoted to the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League Division One South but Long believes there is much more to come from his team between now and the end of the season.

“We set a target of 40 points before the season started and we’ve met that by mid February, credit to everybody concerned.

“But, there’s still 45 points to play for between now and the final day of the season and we want to push for as many of those points as possible to see where that takes us.”

‘Dale now turn their attentions to this evening’s game at Romulus in the Walsall Senior Cup with a Semi-Final home tie against either Bolehall Swifts or Chasetown awaiting the winners.

Long added “It’s going to be a tough game.

“Having said that, we’re in good form and if we come away with a victory then we have yet another semi-final for the club to play.”