Brian Hargrave wished he coukld have been there, but his team did him proud at Manchester Northern ...
Benz-Bavarian Duffield got their season back on track with a nail-biting victory in Manchester.
Nick Matthew maintained his 100 per cent record for the Derbyshire side when he clinched the deciding rubber against Manchester Northern's Martin Heath 3-1 to keep Duffield's chances of an end of season play-off place alive.
It completed a tremendous fightback by Duffield after being 2-0 down which delighted the travelling supporters.
With Edgbaston Priory being comprehensively beaten 5-0 by a full-strength Nottingham, Duffield now sit only four points behind the second-placed Birmingham side with four matches remaining.
With Duffield's next game a home tie against Wolverhampton on January 20, another win would leave them facing their play-off rivals in the last three games of the season.
Acting manager Paul Hargrave, who grabbed his third win of the season with a 3-0 win over Peter Billson, said he was delighted with his team's performance.
"It was a very good night," he said. "I think if we'd have lost, the season would have been more or less over for us.
"Now, if we can beat Wolverhampton, it sets us up for the final three games against the other top teams and anything can happen."
In the opening game, under-23 player Vicky Lankester was always going to struggle against the experienced Jenny Tranfield and it proved to be the case when the world number 16 strolled to a 9-0, 9-0, 9-3 victory.
The next clash between Duffield's Marcus Cowie and Daryl Selby proved to be the closest of the night, Selby twice taking the lead before Cowie levelled to set up a tense fifth and final game.
In the end, Selby managed to edge out Cowie to take the game 9-6 and give Northern a 2-0 lead.
Jonathan Kemp also looked to be heading for defeat after losing his opening game 10-8 to Phillip Barker. But he came back in style to take the next three games and keep Duffield in the match.
Paul Hargrave, knowing he needed to win to keep his side in the match, again proved to be up to the task when he swept aside Peter Billson 9-6, 9-5, 9-6.
It completed a double over Billson for the acting manager, having already beaten him 3-1 in the opening game of the season at Duffield.
In the deciding tie, Nick Matthew continued the recent good form that has seen him catapulted to world number 11 but he was made to battle by a determined Heath.
Matthew's win heaped further misery on the Scot, who this month dropped out of the world top 20 for the first time since PSA rankings began back in July 1999.
"It was quite exciting when Nick and Martin Heath came on to play the final game. You could tell that Martin was really up for it but Nick seemed to have an answer for everything," said the acting manager.
"Vicky was always going to struggle, while Marcus played well and was a little unlucky.
"At 2-0 down, and with Jonathan losing 8-1 in the opening game of his match, it didn't look too promising.
"But Jon found his game and although there was a bit of added pressure on me when I came on, I feel it was probably my best performance of the season."
SCORES: Manchester Northern 2 Duffield 3 (Duffield players first): Nick Matthew beat Martin Heath 9-4, 8-10, 9-6, 9-7; Paul Hargrave beat Peter Billson 9-6, 9-5, 9-6; Jonathan Kemp beat Phillip Barker 8-10, 9-4, 9-6, 9-7; Marcus Cowie lost to Daryl Selby 7-9, 9-5, 6-9, 9-7, 6-9; Vicky Lankester lost to Jenny Tranfield 0-9, 0-9, 3-9.
OTHER RESULTS: Nottingham 5 Edgbaston Priory 0, Wolverhampton 2 Manchester Pontefract 3.
