AS HAS been the case in their past few matches, this was always going to be a close encounter and so it proved as Swindon Spitfires Under 14s claimed a 2-1 success over Wantage.

Spitfires started by taking the game to their visitors, but it was Wantage who scored first with only three minutes on the clock.

A long throw on the right-hand side by Lauren Froud caught the Spitfires defence flat-footed and the ball fell kindly for Eva Seijido, who ran forward to pass the ball into the net.

Straight from the restart, Spits pushed forward and were awarded a corner on the right. From Chloe Neate’s flag-kick, Jasmin Hindon did well to shield the ball before playing the ball out to Genevieve Bayliss, who levelled the scores.

Spits continued to push forward and on 10 minutes were awarded another corner on the right.

Again Neate took it and Morgan Ly Culley was making a nuisance of herself in the area, allowing Aimee Prinzi to run in on goal and score to send Spitfires in at the break 2-1 to the good.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first, with both sets of midfielders working hard to keep possession and when both teams did push forward, both defences were on hand to deal with it.

Shannon Whitely was named Spitfires’ player-of-the-match.