The only goal of the night arrived after 24 minutes when Jacob Fenton latched onto a brilliant through ball from Lewis Daff and finished comfortably past Luke Pearson in the Wisbech goal. Weather conditions very much played a part in proceedings throughout the contest with driving rain and a swirling wind causing havoc for both sides all evening as neither side could really stamp their authority on the game. Both sides huffed and puffed throughout the second half but Wisbech rarely looked like equalising and the Greens rarely looked like adding a second as they comfortably defended their single goal advantage.

Player/Manager Tom Ward made just one change from the side that emerged victorious on spot kicks at Coventry Sphinx at the weekend with Ryan Flitton replacing Joe Butler. The Greens did also welcome back Scott Ginty, Charlie Ward and Kyle Watkins who all made welcome returns to the bench while Joe Smith and Rodrigo Goncalves missed out again through injury. Wisbech meanwhile were making progress of their own in the Knockout Cup on Saturday afternoon with a narrow 1-0 victory over Clifton All Whites with manager Leon Mettam making four changes to his side in an attempt to kickstart the Fenmen’s league season. Cenk Acar, Daniel Brooks, Andrew Jansson and Amir Ward came in, taking the places of George Zuerner, Momodou Janneh and Kyle Onyon who all dropped to the bench while Keegan Everington missed out altogether.

The game began in absolutely horrific conditions with sheet rain and howling winds battering The Longwater Stadium, and this naturally had an effect on the proceedings on the field with both sides putting in a quiet opening quarter of an hour as they wrestled with the conditions. The only notable action arrived in the first minute of the contest when the ball fell to Daniel Brooks on the edge of the box but he sent his effort wide of the post. Despite the away side holding most of the territorial advantage, it was the Greens who found the opening goal when the ball fell to Lewis Daff in the middle of the park and he angled a great through ball right into the path of Jacob Fenton who finished with aplomb when one-on-one with Luke Pearson.

The opening goal instigated a period of sustained pressure from the Greens who should have been 2-0 up just two minutes later when Daff this time fed Sam Wright who was free in the box, but this time Pearson managed to beat away Wright’s effort. Just short of the half hour mark good work between Ryan Rushen and Jacob Fenton saw the latter free down the right before he set up Akeel Francis who saw his effort deflected just wide of the post. Francis then turned provider this time for Sam Wright again who could only manage to put his effort wide of the post. In stoppage time at the end of the first half Fenton was presented with another golden opportunity to double the Greens advantage when he was again set free one-on-one with Pearson but this time could only push his effort into the side netting.

The Greens, now with the wind to their advantage, began the second half in much the same way as they had finished the first and within two minutes of the restart Ryan Rushen had chipped an effort wide of the post after latching onto a sliced clearance by Kieran Hamilton. It was so close to being 2-0 just two minutes later when the ball fell to Sam Wright on the edge of the box and he slid an effort right through a sea of bodies and onto the post.

With the rain making a return the game slipped into a real battle of attrition with only a sliced Carl Adiku shot and an optimistic effort from Ryan Rushen to note. Despite a quiet final 20 minutes Wisbech did manage to manufacture a decent opportunity to equalise when a long ball lofted into the box was brilliantly cleared away by Tom Ward as multiple Fenmen players lurked – but the Greens saw out the remaining three minutes without any more trouble to take a well-earned three-point haul.

At the full-time whistle manager Tom Ward was thrilled to have seen his side compete so well and claim the three points in such treacherous conditions,

“It was very tough conditions with the wind and the rain and I thought we probably dealt with it better than them and that’s probably the reason we’ve got the result.”

Ward was particularly pleased with the way the Greens navigated a difficult first half during which they played against the wind.

“We were brave and played and we got our results with Fenton getting through one-on-one. We’re really pleased to get the three points.”

Tom was also glad to finally see the Greens make home advantage pay after so far failing to convert good away form into similar at home.

“If our home form matched our away form we’d be top of the league right now. We’ve had a couple of slip ups [at home] but we know where we’ve slipped up and what we’ve got to work on, and we have worked on stuff – hopefully we’ll continue to improve.”

The Greens now make a swift return to action at The Longwater Stadium when Selston FC are the visitors on Saturday afternoon in United Counties League Premier Division North action – kick-off 3PM.

Words: Oliver Atkin