North Leigh, fielding a young but skilful side, started this game before they came out through the tunnel. The noises from their dressing room suggested that they were psyching themselves up to dominate the game from the start.

We were not mistaken. They moved the ball around well, kept pressing Ware into errors when they were in possession and generally played good football to keep the ball in the Ware half for much of the opening twenty minutes. That said, they didn’t really give Fred Burbidge a lot to do in the Ware goal.

Providing a pointer to the way the game would go, it was Ware who had the first meaningful shot in this period. It was straight at keeper Monty Marriott but it was at least on target.

Ware did better at the mid-point of the half, Jay Rolfe’s cross after some good build up play, being headed home by Jack Grosvenor. The centre back took a quick glance to sum up the layout of the home defenders before looping the ball up and over Marriott and into the far corner of the net.

The goal had its effect. The Millers were far from out of the contest but Ware were suddenly enlivened and the game became more of an even contest. Sufficiently even to cause concern that the visitors could yet get back into a dominant position with an equaliser. Getting to half time without conceding seemed to be the obvious option with the belief that North Leigh’s fast start would inevitably wane as the game went on.

So it proved in the second half as Ware took control. The pressure on the Ware men slowly eased and Theo Ofori, making his fiftieth appearance for the club, and Johnny Allotey both started to influence things on the wings.

The same could be said of Sam Mayuma, playing at number nine in the absence of the injured Jon Clements. Mayuma has some deft ball skills and can extract himself from difficult situations as defenders close around him. Like Ofori he can overplay his hand at times, seemingly trapped in the desire for one more humiliating nutmeg or unexpected drag back when a pass would be better but there’s no denying that he has developed into an important member of the squad since the start of the season.

It was then no surprise that he scored Ware’s next two goals. The first of these was important because at 1-0 there was always the chance of a goal against the run of play changing the direction of the game, just as Ware’s opener had done. So, it was a relief when another Grosvenor header, helping Mitch Hahn's free kick into into the six yard area, found a waiting Mayuma who happily turned it into the goal from close range.

He struck again with twenty minutes left. This time it was Josh Okotcha with the assist, a cross from the Ware right that Mayuma hit against Marriots’ right hand post before snapping up the rebound to score again from close range.

A three-goal lead was the signal to start making use of the substitutes bench. Some people have baulked at the change to allow five substitutes in a game or a 50% turnover in players, “it’s not football”, but Paul Halsey’s men face a senior cup game on Tuesday and an away league game next Friday evening. Best then, to give as many players as possible some match experience whilst avoiding the risk of injury by taking others out of the game. So it was that by the 76th minute Halsey had swapped in five players.

Expectant supporters were disappointed by the inevitable drop off in the quality of play by this reconstructed side after Ware had been entertaining with some of their best football of the season. On the other hand, they were given a look at Halsey’s latest signing, the tall, twenty-year-old midfielder Gucci Soulya-Osekanongo, who joins from Bedford Town.

What supporters also got was a fourth goal. Gabriel Chapps, who had replaced Mayuma from the bench, shook off the attentions of Luke Thompson near the corner of the six-yard area before sending the ball beyond Marriott and into the other side of the goal. It was well taken and his first league goal for the senior side.

Ware’s second clean sheet of the season, coming as it did less than three weeks since their first, suggests that they are finding a degree of consistency in defence. They also move up to ninth in the table.

Ware: Fred Burbidge, Josh Okotcha, David Sota (Joe Dearman 76mins), Max Granville (Freddy Moncur 70mins), Jay Rolfe, Jack Grosvenor, Theo Ofori, Mitch Hahn (George Ironton 76mins), Sam Mayuma (Gabriel Chapps 76mins), Jack Dreyer (Gucci Soulya-Osekanongo 70mins), Johnny Allotey.