Young prospect Connor Withers capped Huntingdon’s return to form with his first senior try for the club last Saturday.

The winger went over in the final minute to seal a 31-3 triumph over Ilkeston as Stags snapped a four match losing streak in Midlands Division One East.

Such a convincing scoreline hadn’t been on the cards for much of contest moved to the club’s reserve pitch on a soggy Saturday afternoon.

The visitors missed two penalty attempts before the boot of Dan Malem kicked Stags ahead although Ilkeston did quickly reply to level.

Another Malem penalty put Huntingdon back into a narrow advantage at the end of a try-less opening 40 minutes. The closest either side came to touching down was when Stags man Matt Davies-Binge was held up over the line.

There was no stopping the trusty boot of Malem though as a drop goal and penalty increased Stags’ advantage to nine points in the second half.

The hosts had been workmanlike up to that point, but stepped up to score three tries in the closing quarter-of-an-hour.

Billy Bates was the first man to touch down after the Ilkeston defence had failed to deal with an up-and-under kick and Tom Morgan quickly followed up by winning a kick and chase to go over in the corner.

Malem did the honours with both conversions before the most memorable moment of the match arrived in the final minute as Withers was on the end of a slick right-to-left move to grab his first try at this level – surely the first of many.

Malem did miss the conversion attempt, but was still responsible for more than half of his side’s points.

Huntingdon travel to Kettering for an A14 derby this Saturday (2.15pm).