Mikey Dunn earns praise after two-goal display lights up Pontefract Collieries win over Lincoln United

Dunn has been in scintillating form in recent weeks despite results not always going Pontefract’s way in a frustrating run that saw them draw four and lose three of their previous seven matches, with a number of late goals going against them.

But his efforts went rewarded in a home game with Lincoln United that saw Colls run out fully deserving 3-1 winners.

Dunn fired Ponte ahead after 21 minutes and they held the lead until midway through the second half when Jake Park equalised.

A second Dunn goal five minutes later restored the home side’s lead and Adam Priestley made sure of the points five minutes from time.

“You look at Mikey’s performance and he’s absolutely lit the place up with his running at people,” said Colls manager Craig Rouse.

"I said to him that’s the Mikey Dunn we want week in, week out.

"The last four or five weeks we’ve seen that when he’s in this frame of mind when he’s enjoying his football and he’s got a smile on his face ultimately that’s what you get.

"He’s been unplayable and there were a lot of performances that were eight, nine out of 10.

"We went to Hebburn and put on a good performance and at Sheffield and unfortunately made individual errors. If you do that at this level you get punished for them. We asked for a response and to make less errors and we’ve done that as a group. Ultimately it’s ended up in three points.”

Rouse was relieved to see his side pick up the three points as he wants the team to finish as high as possible.

He added: "We were starting to look over our shoulder a little bit and that’s disappointing as it should never have been the case this season. We were in a good position and we tossed that away in the last month.

"We had to make sure we didn’t get drawn into anything down the bottom end. We’re still looking up the table and still want to finish as high as possible and that performance (against Lincoln) backs that up.

"We’ve got another tough game now where we’ve got to put another performance in.

"We want to win every game, we’ve got a lot of pride, I’ve got a lot of pride and the rest of the staff and the players have.

"We want to make sure we give a good reflection of ourselves and if we can’t have any impact on our season we’ll try and have impact on other seasons and whether it’s helping teams out or hurting teams we’re in all four remaining games to win them.”

Ponte are now in action again today when they travel to South Yorkshire to play Stocksbridge Park Steels (3pm).