Three first half goals were enough to give Molesey a comfortable victory over Colliers Wood at a wet Walton Road.

Arnold Tawonezvi took advantage of some slack marking to power in a free header from a Lewis Ackerman corner on 16 minutes, and added a carbon copy second on the stroke of half-time.

Sam Lampard’s neat finish with Ackerman once again the provider had doubled Molesey’s advantage on the half hour, before the visitors’ pulled one back six minutes into the second half.

Ross Defoe and Mickey Hughes came in for Luke Elliott and Paul Gough in the only changes to the side who snatched a last minute winner at Wembley on Saturday, and by the time Tawonezvi opened the scoring the home side could have been two down, as first James Davies saw a 1-1 well saved by former Colliers Wood keeper Wester Young, then Barry Norman had Young well beaten with a terrific 30 yard free kick that came back off the angle.

A superbly timed last ditch tackle by Defoe prevented Davies a clear strike at goal moments after Tawonezvi’s opener, before Shane Sinclair, who terrorised the visitors’ defence all evening, set up another chance for Tawonezvi, although Chris Duffy in the away goal was equal to his effort on this occasion.

Lampard surged past Daniel Hughes before volleying confidently beyond Duffy to put the Moles two up, before centre halves Joe Yeates and Moses Spencer appeared to get in each other’s way at a corner and Spencer blasted over from close range.

Yeates hobbled off to be replaced by Paul Gough shortly afterwards, although that did nothing to stop the Moles momentum as Defoe and Sinclair linked up only for Defoe’s shot to deflect agonisingly wide of the post.

The visitors’ started the second half brightly and Stefan Joseph grabbed a well-taken consolation shortly after the restart having been set up by Davies, and although Wood then had the wind in their sails for a while, did not seriously test Young, with Reece Smith-Millar guilty of a glaring close-range miss the closest they came.

Farid Ibrahim-Zadeh injected some zest into the Molesey side with his introduction midway through the half, although the home side never looked particularly likely to add to their three goals, with the incessant rain doing little to help the overall quality of the game, and whilst the weather invited several late challenges, the ref took on a sensible stance and had a fine game, despite the best efforts of the visitors’ Danny Cormack to do his job for him.

With ten league games to go the Moles are now just 6 points off their total points tally from last season, and the chance to close that gap further and provide tangible evidence of progress this season will come along at Cove on Saturday, with the Moles out for revenge following two early season defeats against the men from Hampshire.

Line Up: Wester Young, Andy Graves, Ross Defoe (Gareth Witter 82), Joe Yeates [C] (Paul Gough 37), Dan Coombes, Sam Lampard, Mickey Hughes (Farid Ebrahim-Zadeh 67), Arnold Tawonezvi, Lewis Ackerman, Shane Sinclair. Subs (not used) Billy Pamment, Rob Lewis