Wotton secured a vital three points with their first league win of the season, but there was little else to cheer in another poor home performance.

The Blues conceded an early lead to the depleted Gloucester side but goals from James Ferraby, Jamie Gosling and Ed Sonnex soon turned the tide in the hosts favour. However, poor passing and marking, coupled with inexplicable lethargy meant that Wotton failed to fully control the game, even at 3-1 up.

Some comical defending early in the second half allowed City to level the game at 3-3 but when a goal bound strike from a penalty corner was stopped by a defender’s foot, Tim Saunderson stepped up to convert the resulting stroke for Wotton to regain the lead.

Wotton weathered a late storm when Bruce Dunham was sent to the sin bin but a well taken breakaway goal by Sonnex in the closing stages made the game safe at 5-3. Wotton have shown in narrow away defeats to teams in the top half of the table that they can compete in this division but consistency of performance, team ethic and their will to win needs to drastically improve over the coming weeks.

Severn Division Cheltenham III 2 Wotton-under-Edge 1

Cheltenham came away with all three points in a game which left Wotton’s 1st XI puzzled as to how they lost having dominated much of the game.

Wotton’s second defeat of the season means they slip to fourth place in the table.