Easington Sports’ first team returned from the Barrington Park with their first away point of the season. This was a scrappy game in which Sports had the better possession but Shrivenham had the clearer cut chances. Steve Howkins scored the equaliser after earlier conceding a penalty to give Shrivenham the lead.

After playing out what seemed like a pre season friendly last week, Sports were back to more familiar Hellenic League opposition and faced a tough afternoon in blustery conditions in Wiltshire. Easington were nearly a goal down from the first opening of the match. A long ball over the top caught the defence napping and Adam Rimmer had to be alert to make a fine save tipping the ball over from a shot from the Shrivvy winger. Playing up the slope and into the wind in the first half, Sports were also quick to take advantage of the ball holding up. A ball in from Lewis Travers was half cleared and Steve Howkins was first to the rebound and was able to shoot goal bound which the home keeper did well to save. The half continued to be an end to end affair yet Easington did not really test the keeper again in the half. Shrivvy did however manage to get through on goal but a combination of poor finishing and good goalkeeping, kept the score level at 0-0 at half time.

Easington enjoyed more of the possession going down the slope in the second half but did find themselves a goal down within four minutes of the restart. Another long cross field pass caught the Easington defence flat footed and the Shrivvy winger outpaced the defence cutting inside into the box which lead to a miss timed tackled from Howkins. The referee had no hesitation pointing the spot and the penalty was converted. Sports pressed for an equaliser but found the mobile and youthful Shrivenham team more than a match as they continued to work hard to shut Easington players down giving them little room to play. Easington were limited to very few clear cut chances in the half although they did manage to equalise near the hour mark. Andrew Stidder was brought down in the final third and from the resulting free kick, a ball to the back post was headed back across goal and this time Steve Howkins was able to find the net smashing home the half clearance from near the edge of the box.

Dan Reeves cross come shot caught the keeper out late on in the game and hit the cross bar but in truth, this was an average performance from Sports from a side that has not quite clicked so far this season. A draw was therefore a fair result on the day.

Team: Rimmer, Travers, Dosanjh, Howkins, Montague, Eyre, Smith (Jeacock), Convey, Stidder, Livous (McMahon), Reeves (C Grant) Rose unused sub.