HATFIELD RBL’s 2-1 win over Croxley Guild was marred by an injury to captain Neil Doctor.

The midfielder broke his collarbone in three places.

RBL joint-manager Gary Doctor, Neil’s brother, said: “The injury to my brother Neil obviously took the shine off the win.

“It’s never nice to see a player in distress and even worse when it’s your brother. I could tell straight away it wasn’t right even though he was saying he will be OK.

“It is gutting for us football-wise and more so for Neil work-wise as he will be laid up for six weeks.

“The boys all dedicated the win to him which was nice as we are a close bunch and typically Neil was thrilled at the win.’’

RBL had started the match brightly and should have gone ahead when Marc Arnott went close and on 10 minutes Arnott was the victim of a bad challenge inside the area which the referee ignored and played on.

Croxley then should have had a penalty when Joe Brandon fouled the lively Williams in the area, with the man in the middle evening things up by waving away the claim.

On 15 minutes Neil Doctor suffered his injury and was taken to hospital, with club captain Trevor Golder replacing him in midfield.

The blow had an effect on RBL who struggled to find any rhythm but the defence of Brandon, Matt Chalkley, Ben Salmon and Stuart McDermott held firm in front of Tommy Duke and it remained 0-0 at half-time.

The second half started saw RBL continued to play their football, despite wet conditions, and they went into the lead with a sublime goal from Golder who smashed home from 25 yards after good work from Jack Evans and Jason Caswell.

Martin Standen was proving unplayable in his forward role, with the linesman’s flag saving Croxley twice with Standen through on goal.

Jason Caswell provided Arnott with the chance to increase the lead which he did with a diving header at the back post to put RBL two up.

Croxley pulled a late goal back in the dying seconds but RBL held on for a deserved three points.