BOSS Matty Holmes believes Wimborne Town probably had the last laugh after reaching the Southern League West play-offs.

Magpies’ 4-1 win over Paulton Rovers last night – courtesy of a Toby Holmes double and goals from Luke Holmes and Lee Francis – guaranteed them a top-six finish.

And victory over lowly Slimbridge at Cuthbury on Saturday would secure them third place and, with it, home advantage in the play-off semi-final – and in the final, in the event of them winning through.

Wimborne were the first qualifiers with the other three places still up for grabs. Their opponents in the last four will come from Evesham, Swindon Supermarine, Cirencester, Bristol Manor Farm, Didcot or Bideford.

Boss Holmes told the Daily Echo: “I am absolutely delighted. You work all season for things like this.

“The remit at the start of the season was always to finish above 11th and try to get more than 57 points, our finishing position and points tally from last season.

“If anybody at the start of the season had said Wimborne would finish in the play-offs, I think people would have laughed at them!

“But we have steadily grown as the season has gone on and got better and better. It is a delight to watch the boys play and I think we have thoroughly deserved it.”

Goals from Toby Holmes and Luke Holmes inside the opening five minutes settled any nerves in the home camp, although Magpies should have been out of sight by the interval.

A fortuitous goal from Shea Bennington-Mannings, when Wimborne goalkeeper Gerard Benfield could only punch a corner on to the striker before the ball rebounded into the back of the net, halved the deficit after 54 minutes.

And after Wimborne had weathered a brief storm, Toby Holmes popped up with his 57th goal of the season to ease the pressure 12 minutes from time before Francis came off the bench to complete the scoring two minutes from time – Magpies’ 99th league goal of the season.

Matty Holmes added: “We had the wind and rain in our favour in the first half and had a great start. We should have gone on to score more goals and had some unbelievable chances.

“We switched round and were against the wind in the second half. They nicked one back and your heart was in your mouth.

“But we knew we could catch them. We had a couple of breaks but missed them and you were always thinking ‘is it going to be our night?’.

“We got the third to settle us and Franno came on and got the fourth. I was delighted for the boys. They have worked so hard to get to this position and I felt we thoroughly deserved the win as well.”

The play-off semi-finals take place on Wednesday, May 2 (7.45pm) with the final taking place on Monday, May 7 (3pm).

Magpies: Benfield, Maybury, Hester, Arnold, Oldring, Kellaway, Stokoe, L Holmes (Francis, 85), T Holmes, Burbidge (Bayston, 90), Lovell (Cole, 90). Unused subs: Penny, Walsh (g/k).