It’s been five months since Crowle visited Goxhill and suffered their heaviest defeat of the season.
Since then, the teams have drifted towards opposite ends of the table and the visitors arrived at Windsor Park looking to cement their place in the top two.
United were without leading scorer Danny Smyth, who limped off the field with an injury last week, but Aaron Taylor sits only one goal behind and almost opened the scoring inside five minutes - just as he did in the match back in October, but his shot went just wide.
Both sides were able to play attractive football, however, both defences were on top form so neither goalkeeper was unduly troubled by anything other than long-range shots.
Goxhill eventually nosed in front on 30 minutes with a simple pass through the middle to a forward who touched the ball past Sam Thirkell for a 1-0 half-time lead.
Any fears of a repeat of the away game when Goxhill scored seven second half goals were dismissed by United’s resilient performance with two sets of brothers, the Harrisons and McAnaneys, defending resolutely.
The ball spent more time in Crowle’s half as the game drew on and Goxhill forced a string of corners causing a couple of scrambles in the penalty area, a goal-line clearance from debutant Jamie Teal and two top class saves from Thirkell - but it wasn’t until the 80 minute that their second goal went in.
With time running out, a Goxhill midfielder hit the post with a tremendous shot from 30 yards out while at the other end the move of the game saw Joe Taylor shoot narrowly wide following an elegant exchange with his namesake Danny. Crowle have four games left to stay out of the relegation zone, two of which are against Real Priory who are the visitors to Windsor Park on Sunday morning.
Report submitted by Gareth Parkin