Wisbech Town mark an emotional day with thumping victory over Gresley Rovers

Friends, family and supporters of Wisbech Town bid an emotional farewell to former manager and player Ian 'Jigger Jones' on Saturday.

And the modern-day team marked the poignant occasion with a thumping 5-1 win over Gresley Rovers at Fountain Fresh Park.

Fenmen coach Ross McNeil said: "It was a big day for the club in general with so many of Ian's family and friends present.

"We spoke before the game about a lot of ex-players coming to pay their respects. We knew there would be a lot of emotion around paying tribute to a club legend and I think we did that fantastically well as a club."

"It was good to see all of the ex-players out on the pitch and Ian's family as well."

Jones' playing days for The Fenmen ranged from 1977 until 1997, a total of 582 appearances, scoring eight goals.”

His time as manager included a League Cup win over Newmarket Town, a Cambs Invitation Cup win over Cambridge City, and an FA Cup run - including getting to the First Round Proper of the FA Cup for the first time in 30 years.

Promotion was gained in 1996/97 by finishing runners-up in the league and the team continued to do well in both FA competitions, again reaching the First Round Proper of the FA Cup.

The Fenmen used the emotion to inspire them to their best performance of the campaign so far.

Visiting Rovers took the lead in first-half injury-time but it prompted an immediate response from the Fenmen who equalised through Amir Ward two minutes after the restart.

Elliot Foster fired the Fenmen ahead seven minutes later before Sam Murphy, a second goal for Ward and Sam Harris wrapped up a convincing 5-1 victory.

"It was a fantastic performance and it was a gam,e of two halves really, although I didn't think we played that badly in the first half," said McNeil.

"Coming from behind to win a football match is hard so that's another box that we've ticked off today.

"The quality of our goals in the second half were outstanding and everything just came together.

"Since Hippy (Luke Hipwell) has come to the club there has been a lot of hard work going on.

"We believe in life in life if you do the right things and work hard you will get your rewards.

"No one is getting carried away, we've won two football matches and there's still a lot of hard work to do.

"Everyone is in this together and we'll be doing our best to get this football club back up the league and setting achievements."

Wisbech have now registered nine goals in their last two games and have moved up to 16th in the league standings as a result ahead of Saturday's trip to Newark Town.

Before the game, they confirmed the names of three new signings in Will Lakin, Luke Nicholson and Lewis Arber.

Goalkeeper Lakin is dual-registered with Stamford, Nicholson joins from Holbeach United where he was captain and Arber joins from Bourne Town.

Wisbech Town: Lakin, Wilson (Cavozzi), Balding, Braham, Mattless, Murphy, Zaluzinskis (Harris), Williams, Foster (Nicholson), Allen, Ward.