Reserves move up the table with a good result against AFC Stoneham.
1st Half
Waltham looked to build on last weeks 4-1 win over league leaders Paulsgrove. Straight from the kick off Waltham were under pressure and for the first 5 mins had to be on their toes several times as Stoneham put the pressure on throwing plenty of players forward looking for an early break. Waltham’s debutant GK, Jon Betteridge made a string of comfortable saves early on with Stoneham being restricted to shots from 18 yards. Waltham seemed to have weathered the storm looking comfortable with the wingers Nathan Hunt and Scott Sharp looking dangerous on the flanks working well with the front men. 30 mins in against the run of play Stoneham broke and forced a corner on right hand side. The corner initially cleared fell to the Stoneham right winger and a cross from the right was bundled home from 2 yards leaving the keeper no chance 0-1.
Waltham took the restart with their heads up looking for a quick equalizer with the back four looking solid and central midfield paring of Paul Flynn and Martin West starting to break up the play and getting the ball out to the wide men and this paid off 5 minutes before half time when the ball found Nathan Hunt who played in a quick ball to front man Chris Andrews who in turn played the ball back into the right full back Mark Stanmore who then played a nice pass over the top finding the feet of Nathan Hunt who made a run down the right flank, hunt beat one defender and got clipped on the edge of the box and won a free kick in a dangerous position. Hunt got up and took the free kick and delivered a great cross into the 6 yard box where Martin West rose highest to nod the ball home from 6 yards and bring Waltham level at 1-1 going into half time.
2nd Half 1-1
Stoneham Kick off and straight away Bishops Waltham were hot on their tails, closing down from the front looking to force errors from the opposition. This seemed to unsettle them and Waltham we able to get the ball down and enable the two full backs Claus and Ryan Dickson to pick out passes into feet. Waltham started pushing on with the Stoneham keeper being forced into making some decent saves pushing them out for corners. Martin West nearly added a second when his header from the corner was cleared by some good defending.
With the game even at 1-1 and both teams looking to push on with 60 mins gone on the clock Jon Betteridge with a long goal kick found a Waltham midfielder and the ball was flicked on deep into the opposition half, with the two Waltham front men looking to find the back of the net with chances few and far between they couldn't believe their luck when the flick on was misjudged by the defender and Chris Andrews took a touch and cut inside and loop the ball into the back of the net from 18 yards with the keeper just a little too far off the line to do anything about it. 2-1 Waltham.
Stoneham pushed hard to find an equalizer and came close around mins with two free kicks one of which was headed straight into the arms of the Waltham GK and one drive fizzing just wide of the post.
With 10 mins to go it looked like Bishops Waltham had weathered the storm with great defending from Centre back pair of Matt Lickman and Phil Smith working well together with some great last minute challenges to fend of any chance of an equalizer.
The game could quite possible ended up 3-1 or maybe 4-1 when Scott Sharpe had two opportunities the first being fed in after some good work from Tevik Edin and the shot ending up just wide and then moments later a counter attack in the last few minutes again good work from Tevik Edin finding his strike partner Chris Andrews who in turn found Scott Sharpe on the wing with a diagonal ball only to be denied by the offside flag.
Full Time 2-1
