Basement side hold weary Rovers (From Gazette Series)

Basement side hold weary Rovers

Wotton Rovers 3 Viney St Swithins 3

THOUGH clearly the better side Wotton were held to a frustrating draw by bottom club Viney St Swithins, writes Gordon Evans.

Rovers found themselves a goal down on 35 minutes when a cross was cleared to the edge of the box but fell kindly for a visiting player to strike home. Wotton had a couple of good first half chances to level but failed to hit the target.

Rovers again created good openings in the second period, without really testing the keeper, and Viney increased their lead with a scrambled goal following a breakaway.

Wotton started knocking the ball about, with Tom Price prominent up front alongside Steve Nicholls and on the hour a Price shot was parried but Steve Jackson bundled the ball over the line to reduce the deficit to 2-1. In the next 10 minutes Wotton scored two further goals, both struck home by Nicholls from a Price cross.

At 3-2 up, Wotton were now dominant but with the game held up for an injury to a Viney player, Wotton lost their momentum and Viney equalised when Paul Eli headed back to his keeper who slipped coming for it, giving the visiting striker a simple tap-in to steal an undeserved point.

"We really should have won," said assistant manager Stuart Freeman,"and will be hoping for better things when we go to Thornbury this Saturday."