Any lingering, faint, hopes of a reprieve from relegation due to Welwyn Garden’s ground grading issues evaporated on the Friday, leaving Wantage just to play for a win, and hope for a Colney defeat, to avoid finishing rock-bottom.

And the fact that neither happened was pretty much the season in a nutshell.

Romania started strongly and Sean Bonnett-Johnson fired just wide on three minutes, before Jamie Smith finished a cross from the right two minutes later to give the hosts the early advantage.

Wantage came back, and Lewis Crosbie’s shot skimmed the top of the net on 14 minutes, and Jamal Branker’s 33rd minute free-kick was cleared behind for a corner.

The leveller came four minutes later as Callum Crook seized onto a looping clearance and lobbed it over the head of the stranded ‘keeper and it just about crossed the line before the chasing defender tried to hook it clear (although he only found the roof of the net anyway).

The lively Crosbie earned another dead-ball kick on the edge of the 18 yard box a minute into first-half stoppage time, but Branker’s effort was straight at the keeper.

As the teams changed ends Colney were 2-1 down to play-off chasing North Leigh, meaning Wantage were off the bottom … but that only lasted two minutes into the second half as Colney levelled, putting things out of Wantage’s hands.

Romania then re-took the lead two minutes short of the hour, Jon Edwards firing a dipping shot over Alex Anenell from the left wing. But Crook nabbed his second within sixty seconds, his on-target shot hitting the prostrate Sergio Manesio to wrong foot Adrian Darabant and nestle in the ‘keeper’s bottom right-hand corner.

Crook could have / should have gone on to complete his hat-trick; finding himself one-on-one with Manesio on 67 minutes, but didn’t get his shot away in time and the ball was bundled clear.

A costly miss as four minutes later Romania re-took the lead when Jake Pemberton brought down Kevin Krans and Zenon Stylianides slotted home the resultant penalty.

Further chances came and went for Wantage, Chief Boateng had a 82nd minute shot tipped over and Kyle Bestley just missed getting on the end of Jack Alexander’s resultant corner.

Two minutes later Avenell was lucky not to be heading for an early bath; already on a yellow he felled one of the Romaia players outside of the area but managed to escape with just a talking to from the man in the middle. He then went on to save the free-kick, and made another couple of decent saves to prevent the hosts adding to their tally.

And that was that.- relegation for Wantage after having escaped the fate in 2019/20 due to the COVID interruption. And Colney managed to beat North Leigh 3-2 to leave Wantage three points adrift and bottom.

We now await the FA’s confirmation as to which Step 5 League the club will be placed in.

Match Details can be found here, and some match photos here.

MEN’S DEVELOPMENT TEAM

23/04/22 H v Letcombe – 1-1 Draw

The local derby with Letcomber saw a close game. Wantage were without a recognised goalkeeper, leaving Kieran Kerby to don the gloves.

Luke Faircloth gave Wantage an early second-half lead, but Josh Fowler levelled things with 15 minutes to play.

30/04/22 H v Fairford Town Reserves – 2-3 Defeat

The run of poor form since February continued in to the last game of the season, the 3-2 defeat seeing Wantage finish a disappointing sixth.

Matty Jones put the visitors ahead on 15 minutes, a deserved lead they held to half-time.

Wantage equalised on the hour through a great Kieran Kirby goal to the top corner, but then fell behind again six minutes later to Kyle Parker.

Calum Pryce drew Wantage level for the second time on 77 minutes, but hopes of going on to take the win disappeared when Jones netted again on 82 minutes.