Match Report: Winchester City 1 vs 1 Evesham United

(Taken from the Winchester City FC website)

For the first time in 12 meetings between the clubs a match between Winchester and Evesham finished all square as the teams shared the spoils in a competitive match after which Winchester slip to fourth as a result of Larkhall winning. In each of the previous five seasons in which the clubs have met they have shared one win each, but this time around Evesham have taken four points from the two games.

Evesham from Worcestershire have finished in the top seven of this division in each of the last five seasons, reaching the playoffs in three of these and are again in the top half of the table. At the start of this season they appointed Carl Abbott as manager in place of Paul Collicutt.

Winchester’s captain Jamie Barron was unavailable for this match and Rob Carr replaced him in the starting line-up as the only change from the previous Saturday with Danny King taking over the captaincy.

Early on Rob Carr had a shot saved by Lochlan Robertson in the Evesham goal and had another effort over the bar, while Simba Mlambo also came close, but Evesham had the better of the latter period of the first half. Paul Sullivan had an excellent chance, but headed over and Lee Chilton who had scored in the first game between the teams this season had a shot saved. However the most significant action of the first half was a wonder strike from Sullivan which flew into the net from distance in the 34th minute.

Evesham had a lot of height in their side and it was certainly very much a challenge for Winchester to win the aerial battles. Ryan Pryce was tested twice early in the half and although Oli Bailey had a shot saved Winchester were finding Evesham difficult to break down. However Winchester did step up a gear in the game’s final quarter of an hour. Simba Mlambo had a shot saved and they forced several corners. In the 84th minute Rob Carr levelled the scores with another excellent strike from distance, which represented the second successive occasion he had scored in this fixture. After this both teams had their attacking moments, but overall a draw was a fair result. Winchester introduced Ollie Griggs, I K Hill and Dom Panesar-Dower as substitutes with the first named coming on the field on the stroke of half time and the other two entering the fray in the game’s second period.