Witham Town avoided a potential banana skin as they travelled to Waltham Forest in Ryman League division one north.
Manager Garry Kimble had warned about complacency from his players as they headed to a struggling Forest side that had lost 10-1 in their previous game.
So the final scoreline will have pleased the Town boss, but they did fall behind to an early goal.
Tom Wraight levelled matters on six minutes, though, and Lewis Godbold's 12th minute goal put Witham ahead at half-time.
The hosts were reduced to ten men for the final half hour of action and that allowed Witham to stretch clear at the end as two Kris Newby strikes and one from James Stevens in the final seven minutes made it 5-1 at the end.
The win saw Witham stay third, but they closed the gap on leaders VCD Athletic, who lost 2-1 against Harlow Town, to nine points with two games in hand.
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