EVESHAM United will head into the vital Easter period buoyed by Saturday’s crucial 1-0 home win over fellow Southern League West play-off hopefuls Winchester City.
Despite victory, the Robins remain seventh – a place and a point outside the play-off places – ahead of today’s (Friday, 2pm) home game against Bideford which is followed by Monday’s (3pm) trip to Shortwood United.
Just eight points separate third-placed Swindon Supermarine and Winchester in 11th in what is an extremely congested race for a top-six finish and includes Devon outfit Bideford, who go into today’s game two places and four points behind United with three games in hand.
Evesham had much the better of the first half on Saturday but, despite Adam Mann and Matt Liddiard both going close, they could not find the breakthrough and almost fell behind when Rob Carr’s shot struck the post.
Shortly into the second half Winchester’s Oli Bailey fired wide but Evesham grabbed the winner when Joe Turley played the ball out of midfield to find Matt Bennett who was wide left and his cross found Mann whose outstretched foot was able to steer the ball into the back of the net.
Lewis Powell and Andy Lewis had half-chances to increase the hosts’ lead but there were no further goals and all that remained was to give an emotional post-match send-off to midfielder Paul Fahy who is departing to Finland to start the next chapter of his life.
Meanwhile, Monday’s opponents Shortwood have announced they will be resigning from the league at the end of season – citing difficulties in meeting the financial commitments for Step 4 and the fact the Stroud club’s major sponsorship income has been lost going forward.
