EVESHAM United ended a run of four successive home defeats in all competitions with a hard fought 1-1 draw at home to lowly Mangotsfield United in Southern League West on Saturday.
However, although the result ended the Robins’ losing run on home soil, it was nonetheless two points dropped for Paul Collicutt’s side who ended the weekend in sixth place.
Manager Collicutt rung the changes as he made no less than five alterations from the midweek home defeat to Kidlington.
The game started in a very untidy manner with neither side looking as if they wanted to take control of the game in the first 20 minutes, before the Bristol-based visitors began to enjoy the majority of the possession without ever really looking like they were going to create anything in the final third of the pitch.
Finally, the game sprung to life in the 34th minute when a Bradley Gray corner found the head of Ethan Moore who scored, much to the delight of the home supporters.
Mangotsfield’s best and pretty much only first half chance came in the 39th minute when Kane Simpson was free in the box but did not manage to get a clean strike on the ball as his attempted shot went wide.
As the second half began it looked as though Mangotsfield were not going to take any risks and they waited for Evesham to make errors to regain possession.
Sadly the home side obliged with some poor passing on far too regular a basis and Evesham were punished for their errors in the 54th minute when Simpson’s deflected shot gave Kevin Sawyer no chance.
In the last third of the game both sides found it difficult to keep hold of the ball and there was some very poor passing at times, but when Evesham did manage to hold on to the ball they did make decent use of it.
Gray’s shot went just over the bar following a good period of home team pressure on 63 minutes which was followed by another chance when Moore picked up the ball just inside the Mangotsfield half and made a great run but his final pass to Lewis Powell was not a good one.
Then came Paul Fahy with another lung-bursting run which ended with Carl Brown firing just over the bar.
In the 76th minute the visitors looked like they may have nicked all three points when Nick Peare’s header evaded all in the Evesham defence, but fortunately the post came to the hosts’ rescue.
As the game entered the last ten minutes Evesham threw everything at Mangotsfield, with Brown going close on a couple of occasions, whilst Adam Mann also had his chances – the closest of which just skimmed the bar.
When the final whistle went it was easy for all to see the Mangos had got what they came for and, as for Evesham, it was a point at the Jubilee following an awful run of home defeats but the overriding feeling was one of disappointment.
The Robins return to league action at home to lowly Yate Town on Saturday.
On Wednesday (7.30pm) it is the turn of the Evesham United youth team to take centre stage when they make club history, taking on League One’s Shrewsbury Town Youth in the first round proper of the FA Youth Cup, having never reaching this point of the competition before.
Admission at the Jubilee Stadium is £3 for adults and £2 for concessions.