With a wind that swirled around the pitch, and with the ground being hard, it wasn’t the ideal playing conditions. New signing Adam Bruce made his debut, starting for the Freds. Both teams got off to a slow start, and apart from a couple of goal line clearances, two for the Freds and one for the Boatmen, the first half was a tame affair. The score was 0-0 at halftime.

The second half was very similar to the first half with neither team creating many chances. The goalkeepers had a very quiet game, with only the Boatmen’s goalkeeper, Rory Anderson being called into action in the 70th minute. Nick Thorne was brought down in the box, and Ben Whitehead stepped up to take the penalty. Anderson saved it comfortably. The final score was 0-0, which was enough to virtually guarantee the Freds remaining in the Southern League next season.

Many congratulations to manager Daniel Barry, assistant manager Ian Lovegrove and all the players and back office people at Wantage. It is well deserved and a great achievement after the turnover of staff and players after the start of the season. Dan has done a great job at bringing on a number of younger players from the Reserves and also attracting new players to the Club.

Wantage Town look forward to the 1st team consolidating their position in the Southern League next season, and are also looking to attract a new Reserve team manager to further the work that Dan started in the Reserves before his move to manage the 1st team.

SQUAD:
Gareth Tucker, Sam Barder (yellow card), Tai Hubert-Thomas, Stuart Cattell, James Glover, Jared Jones, Rocky Whiting (45 off for Michael Bird), Jake Johns, Ben Whitehead (yellow card), Adam Bruce (65 off for Jonny Haist), Nick Thorne (86 off for Reece Bayliss)

SUBS:
Michael Bird, Reece Bayliss, Jonny Haist, Ian Lovegrove