Garry Kimble says he has acquired a new nickname after his players staged the latest episode of their Great Escape.

With ten minutes of their Ryman League division one north game against Chatham Town to go, it looked like Witham would spurn the chance to to top of the table for a third time.

Having missed out on gaining the summit when losing to Needham Market and Harlow Town in recent weeks, Witham were trailing 1-0 to the Kent side late in the game during their latest bid.

However, an 81st minute goal by Lewis Godbold pulled them level, before Paul King’s 90th minute strike secured three crucial points to finally regain the lead in the title race that they last held back in November.

“Chatham were a decent side,” said Kimble.

“They had won 12 and drawn one of their 14 games coming into this one and they looked sharper than us all over the pitch in the first half.

“If it hadn’t been for (keeper) Martyn Guest, we’d have been three or four behind rather than just the one.

“It was poor and some of our players didn’t fancy it early on.

“You could see it in their body language, so I changed things around for the second half and we went with a bit more pace with Shami (Shamido Pedulu), Kris Newby and Danny Emmanuel coming on.

“Those three gave Chatham more to think about and it was a relief to get the goals at the end.”

It wasn’t the first time that Kimble’s team have dug themselves out of a hole with late goals to pick up vital points and the Witham boss has acquired a new nickname.

They also picked up points with last-gasp goals against Aveley and Redbridge to stay in the title race.

Kimble added: “They’re calling me Steve McQueen after this latest Great Escape.

“In the end it was our never-say-die attitude that got us through and I hope this is the turning point.

“There’s a big buzz about being top of the league with three games to go.

“Hard graft for 270 minutes is what is needed now, working for one another, heading in the right direction and we’ll see where it takes us.

“What I do know, though, is that we have to perform much better than we did against Chatham.

“When you get these late goals it makes your hair stand on end and it shows we never know when to give up, but we need to be starting like that and playing that way for 90 minutes rather than waiting for something to spark us into life.”