Shortwood's comfortable win over lowly Woodstock on Thursday evening was akin to an exhibition performance from the home side, which probably prevented it from being a rout.

Woodstock created the first real chance of the match seven minutes in, when Kevin Pike floated a cross field ball to Green, who just about reached it before it went out for a goal kick. Green hooked the ball hopefully with the outside of his right foot, it hit the top of the bar, and Beckford's follow-up shot was saved by Portlock following and Andy Lewis deflection. Ten minutes later, regular Shortwood firsts player Matt Bennett hit a shot from around 25 yards out which almost squirmed under the body of Woodstock 'keeper Gosling. With a quarter of the game played, Shortwood almost gave up a poor goal when Marks under hit a back pass to Portlock, but Raffael Rice was at a tight angle and Portlock managed to smother before the forward could shoot. A minute later Shortwood opened the scoring; Bennett found Blackah at the edge of the box, whose snapshot nestled into the bottom corner. The next five minutes saw firstly Lewis heading through to Blackah, but he pulled his shot wide when one-on-one with Gosling, and then the home side doubled their lead: some brilliant inter-play down the left hand side culminated in Blackah squaring to Rae, who pulled it back for Freeman to score. With five minutes of the half remaining, Blackah hit the top of the bar with a curling strike from the edge of the penalty area.

HT 2-0

Six minutes into the second half, Shortwood added a third. A long through ball curled around the Woodstock defence by Singh found Blackah, who looked to have controlled it with his arm, but he carried on and scored, despite being fouled as he shot. Woodstock got one back with just over an hour played, Kevin Pike finding Rice, who lofted the ball over the onrushing Portlock, and into the bottom corner. With 15 minutes to play, Ayo Ajijedidun hit the post after Blackah found him with a low near post cross. A late flurry of chances saw an Ajijedidun goal wrongly ruled out for offside (the Shortwood substitute was behind the ball when it was played); another home substitute Hawes saw his close range shot well saved by Gosling; and the best chance of all fell to Rice, who blazed over with the goal at his mercy, having been found again by Kevin Pike.

FT 3-1

Nick Ackland: "Pleased to get back to winning ways. We probably should have scored five or six, but we played some good stuff. It's disappointing to have conceded. We hope to finish the season on a high against Cheltenham Saracens on Monday."