Southern League South and West Division

Winchester City 2

Shortwood Utd 1

By Jim Cunneen

A FORTUITOUS late Winchester winner denied Shortwood United a share of the points.

In atrocious conditions, joint-manager John Evans felt his side deserved a point.

Before the game, Shortwood and Winchester paid their respects on Saturday following Friday night's terrorist atrocities in Paris.

“The key thing was that we did not capitalise enough on the first half when we had the wind at our backs. We have to learn to be more resilient from corners, but I thought a draw would have been the fair result."

Wood took the lead after 31 minutes. On-loan Gloucester City winger Ross Staley picked the ball up in midfield, neatly side-stepped a defender before firing home an unstoppable shot from 25 yards.

Winchester were level within four minutes of the restart as Wood failed to deal with a corner and the ball fell to Benham who swept home. Ten minutes later Bentley went through and shot low and it took a great save from Tom King to turn the ball round the post.

Wood pushed forward. A Will Morford flick almost produced a leveller for the Nailsworth side.

However, City scored the winner after 73 minutes and the manner of it was cruel. Roberts miskicked a cross, and his wind-assisted strike looped over King and just under the bar.

In added time, Marley Thomas saw his goal-bound strike saved by Norris.

SHORTWOOD: King, Rawlings, Humphreys, Lewis, Bennett, Hancock, Thomas, Price, White, Meredith (Morford 72), Staley.

Star Man: Matt Bennett.