For the second game running in-form Adam Mann was Evesham`s match winner when his goal eight minutes before half-time sealed another priceless three points to beat a battling Shortwood side at a windswept Meadowbank to lift the Robins up to second place in the Evo-Stik Southern South & West Division. The victory made it ten games without defeat for Paul Collicutt`s men and in the process the popular Kevin Sawyer kept his 19th clean sheet in 34 league games in what has been an outstanding campaign for the United number one.
Adam Mann scored his 12th of season
Mann who netted the only goal in the Red and Whites last outing at North Leigh, repeated the feat against one of his former clubs to take his tally for the season to 12 and move within three goals of leading scorer Ashley Edenborough. Skipper Matt Sysum was again absent through suspension, so manager Collicutt relied on the same starting eleven who triumphed in Oxfordshire seven days earlier. Shortwood who needed a win themselves to keep their slim play-off aspirations alive, enjoyed the opening exchanges when giant striker Lewis Sommers glanced a header just wide and Josh Egan blazed his shot over after neat skills down the right by the lively Marley Thomas. Evesham gradually worked their way into the game and from Nick Stanley`s free-kick, Edenborough forced Tom King to save and then King was at full stretch to push aside Carl Brown`s deflected drive. Thomas then tested Sawyer before United bagged the all important goal on 37 minutes, Mann dispossessed Ross Langworthy just outside the box and ran on to beat the advancing King from 10 yards.
Although facing a strong blustery wind in the second half, United continued to play the better football and always looked dangerous going forward. Marcus Jackson and the busy Edenborough both went close and King produced several decent stops to keep the home side in the game. Shortwood threatened on the break but Sawyer was up to the task, denying Sommers with a brave block and then touching over a Josh Klein-Davies header. But the best chances fell United`s way in the closing stages, first Edenborough scooped his shot over and then a combination of King and Egan blocked George Washbourne`s shot on the goalline when the United substitute looked certain to score. Despite seven minutes of added-time, Shortwood failed to find an equaliser at the other end and United easily held on for their seventh league double in a remarkable season.
EVESHAM UNITED:
Sawyer, Brown (Wood 41,( Washbourne 78), Stanley, Harding, Slack (Lance Smith 57), Dovey, Jackson, Wilson, Edenborough, Mann, Lee Smith.
SUB NOT USED: Wellon
REFEREE: Mr D.Sallis (Hereford)
ATTENDANCE: 128
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