GOATACRE captain Brad Dawson cut a relieved figure as his side scraped home by seven runs at Glastonbury.

Having gone into this Premier Two clash labelling the game as ‘must-win’, Goatacre nearly came unstuck against the division’s basement side.

Opener Ed Wilkins was run out without facing a ball as thevisitors lost wickets at regular intervals in Somerset. At one stage Goatacre were 60-5 before a well-crafted 58 from Rob Murphy helped them reach 203 all out.

After dismissing Glastonbury’s dangerman Harry Ellison for 27 following a stunning one-handed over-head catch from Jif Wilkins, hopes were high that Goatacre could bounce back from their four-wicket defeat to Keynsham the previous week.

However, the home captain Ali Easton struck 57 from 61 balls to swing the game back in his team’s favour before Goatacre managed to restrict them to 196-7 from their 50 overs.

“They should have never have got as close as they did,” Dawson said. “We were quite lucky to get the win as they batted sensibly at the end.

“If we hadn’t had got their captain Ali Easton when we did it could have been a different story, but thankfully we did.

“We now need to beat Cheltenham on Saturday and then we can climb another place in the table and start to think about catching the teams in fourth and fifth.”

Dawson was pleased that his side managed to limp over the 200-mark after a poor start with the bat.

“It was a wicket where you just needed to bat sensibly,” he said. “Kevin Iles, Rob Murphy and Joe Tillyer did that and we managed to 203.

“When you are 60-5 and get 200-odd it is very pleasing, we were helped by the fact that Glastonbury bowled 38 extras.

“We started pretty well with the ball too so they shouldn’t have really got as close as they did, but we won and that is the main thing.”