Real Bedford fought back from a 1-0 half time deficit to win 3-1 at Ware in Southern League Central Division One to reduce the gap to a single point to Berkhamsted at the top of the division.
Second half strikes from Joey Evans, Ty Ward and Ben Stevens secured Real’s first win of 2025 in their first game since 28 December.
A host of postponements due to frozen pitches have stalled the Southern League in recent weeks but thanks to Ware’s 3G pitch in Hertfordshire, Real Bedford were able to play in one of just two fixtures to go ahead on Saturday (11 January) in this league.
After ten minutes, they were on the back foot.
Stefanos Georgiou gave ninth placed Ware an early lead with a smart finish and that is how the score remained at half-time ahead of a big second forty five minutes for Rob Sinclair’s side.
A loss would have seen Real Bedford four points behind league leaders, Berkhamsted ahead of a crunch tie between the top two in a rearranged fixture on Tuesday 14 January next.
However, Real’s attacking strength shone through in a second half that saw three unanswered goals to secure three big points against last season’s losing play-off semi-finalists.
Joey Evans, who has now scored four goals in four games since returning from injury, restored parity after he completed a slick move that began with an expert pass from Drew Richardson through to the marauding, Josh Setchell.
The winger made no mistake with his assist as Evans slotted home.
Fifteen minutes later, Real were ahead as Evans turned from goalscorer to provider in setting up Ty Ward to score before Ben Stevens sealed the win moments from the full-time whistle as he smashed home at the third time of asking despite last ditch defending from the home team.
“Superb reaction”
Manager, Rob Sinclair noted his team’s reaction to going behind as key to securing three points.
“We’re really pleased. Obviously, going a goal down early wasn’t ideal but the boys’ reaction to that was superb and overall we deserved the win.
“The intensity and the energy that we showed in the second half to get our football going was brilliant so really proud of the boys’ performance in that.
“Ware are a good side, they made it hard and narrowed the pitch and hit us with pace on the counter attack. We had to be patient at times but we stuck to our game plan and got the result.”
“It’s an exciting game [against Berkhamsted] on Tuesday. Everyone knows it’s top against second, but we’re not going to listen to the noise and its another game of football we’ll prepare for.”
The rearranged game against Berkhamsted has the potential to shape the second half of the season; a win for Real Bedford will take them top of the eighth tier for the first time in many weeks while a win will put Berkhamsted four points clear once again.
The only other game to take place in Southern League Central Division One saw a double for captain, Lynton Goss as Leighton Town beat Beaconsfield, also 3-1 away from home.
Every other game in the division was postponed due to a frozen pitch.
The game against Berkhamsted kicks off at 7:45pm on Tuesday 14 January at the Ledger Stadium. Tickets can be purchased here.
