Wakering, who have climbed to ninth place in Ryman Division One North with their recent great run, completely outplayed hosts Arlesey who had lost just four of their previous 20 home League games.

The visitors took the lead after 24 minutes with a candidate for goal of the season, Gary Ewers beating Patching with a 30-yard dipping effort which gave the stopper no chance.

Arlesey came close to responding on the stroke of half-time when Dave Hudson in the village side's goal saved opposition skipper Stuart Beevor's free-kick.

And the same pairing came face to face again on the hour mark in the game's pivotal moment. The home side were awarded a penalty for a foul, but Hudson dived to his right to save Beevor's spot-kick.

Almost immediately Wakering broke to the other end and made it 2-0 through an Andy Theodosiou own goal.

This really signalled the end of any home resistance. Wilson followed another good left-wing run by forcing Patching to save with 20 minutes to go, but two minutes later Wakering went 3-0 up when Dan Trenkel moved onto a John Heffer pass and Patching missed the ball completely, allowing Rovers' top scorer to shoot into an empty net.

Tommy Dalgarno, who led the visiting attack well, had a 20-yard effort tipped over by Patching and then saw substitute Dave Collins shoot just over from his headed assist.

However, the same combination accounted for the fourth and final goal after 86 minutes when Dalgarno's cross from the right allowed Collins to fire his first senior team goal low into the net to round off a great afternoon for the visitors.

Published Monday, April 7 , 2003

Brought to you by the Evening Echo