Archie Jones’ 68th minute winner gave Real Bedford a pivotal 1-0 away win in Southern League Central Division One on Saturday (26 October) over fellow high flyers, Flackwell Heath.
Just five minutes after coming on a substitute, Jones latched on to the end of a Ben Stevens shot to pounce and strike to give Rob Sinclair’s men all three points at Wilks Park.
Both sides started the day in the play-off positions level on 22 points after nine games but Real Bedford were able to open up a three point gap by 5pm on Saturday thanks to a special goal from Jones.
The winger is continuing his comeback from a long-term injury, and proved to be the difference at the end of an even game between two good sides towards the top of the division.
Chances were few and far between; Joey Evans thought he had given the away side the lead on the stroke of the interval, but his strike was ruled out for offside as both teams went into half-time with deadlock yet to be broken.
However, when Archie Jones replaced Callum Nicholson on the hour mark, it proved to be a master stroke as Jones found himself on the end of a shot from Ben Stevens to guide the ball home past Lindrit Beqiri in the Heath goal.
It proved to be a winner in a nip and tuck encounter, that come April, could be huge, especially with teams in and around Real such as Berkhamsted and Welwyn Garden City also winning 2-0 and 4-0 respectively.
Hadley are still top despite not playing in the league this Saturday as they progressed to the 2nd Round of the FA Trophy.
A long way to go
“I thought we were excellent today, and delighted with the boys’ performance”, said manager, Rob Sinclair.
“The desire to defend our box in that last five minutes was incredible and I’m proud of the boys there.
“Everyone associates us with the way we play on the ball, but the boys showed today that they can sure fight off it. With the men they were committing forward, to show the desire to keep the ball out of the back of the net was incredible.”
“It was a massive win today”, added defender and player of the match, Brett Longden.
“As the gaffer says, its another three points. It’s a massive result to come to your rivals and win 1-0 with a gritty win so you can’t beat it.”
Real Bedford are back on the road on Wednesday night as they travel to tenth placed, Enfield before they’re back at the Ledger Stadium on Saturday (2 November) to host second bottom side, Kidlington.
