Sholing 0 - Winchester City 1

Winchester City moved out of the bottom four with a 1-0 away win at Sholing who last season completed the double against them and scored eight goals in the process. The result puts them 1 point behind Sholing who have now not won any of their last eight league games, but have an experienced manager at the helm in Paul Doswell who has previously managed Eastleigh, Sutton United and Havant and Waterlooville, achieving three promotions with Eastleigh and two with Sutton.  Their determination to get things right is illustrated by the fact that in the week before the game, they made three new signings, one of them Zidan Akers played against Winchester for Hungerford earlier in the season. They have made many improvements to the infrastructure of the club in the last year and have appointed Southampton football legend Matt Le Tissier as a director of the club.

The result puts Winchester's average points per game above 1 for the first time this league and they are likely to need to keep it that way in a competitive division.

Winchester's starting line-up saw the return of Jamie Barron and Ollie Griggs from suspension and there was also a return to the starting line-up for Danny King and Trevor Caborn.  They replace George Britton, Dan Bartlett, Luka Chalwell and Harry Hutchinson with the first three named on a substitute bench which also includes Simba Mlambo and Jordan Rose.

The return of Rose from injury is particularly welcome and it comes in a week where Callum Buckley and I K Hill have both signed contracts with the club and Max Smith has rejoined the club from Basingstoke although he was unable to play in this game.

In the second minute of the game, Luke Cairney made a good save from Seung Yang. At the other end, it took a goal-line clearance from a Sholing defender to keep an effort from Dan Jones out, but Cairney made a good save from Akers in a one-on-one situation.  Akers forced a further save from Caitney, but it was then the turn of Sholing goalkeeper Pat Nash who is one of their three new signings to make a good save as he did well to tip a long-range effort from Tommy Wright over the crossbar.

Nash also did well to intercept another Winchester attack, while Sholing's other new signing Michael Folivi, who has one Premier League appearance to his name, and Dan Jones both had off-target efforts for their respective sides with Folivi's attempt being a diving header.  

Before halftime in what was an even and goalless first half Luke Cairney made a further good save from Akers.

The first significant action of the second half came five minutes into the game's second period when I K Hill received the ball on the left-hand side, doing well to keep the ball in play, and cut inside before being fouled by Benny Read. Hill took the penalty himself and scored to give Winchester the lead,

The Winchester defence then got in a succession of blocks to keep out a Sholing attack as the home team's two outfield signings combined well.  

Midway through the second half Sholing were reduced to 10 men following a tackle on Trevor Caborn by Harry Taylor. Both teams made substitutions soon after the sending off with Winchester replacing Trevor Caborn and Jamie Barron with Dan Bartlett and George Britton and Sholing needing to adjust their formation following the red card.

For the home team Read put in a cross that no one could get on the end of, while Folivi had another effort blocked as Winchester defended their lead well even allowing for the extra man, although the game remained an open one with both teams having attacking movements in the latter stage of the game. Winchester had bought on Simba Mlambo for Tommy Wright and Luka Chalwell for Dan Jones and right at the end Jordan Rose made a welcome return as he became Winchester's fifth substitution of the afternoon as he came on for I K Hill as Winchester added solidity to their defence for the closing minutes of the game.

The match attracted a crowd of over 500, which with neither Southampton or Eastleigh in action had a lot of local interest.

On Saturday Winchester are away to Taunton.