Tonight as the rain had finally stopped after a week of storms and flooding in the area, I came to New Cuthbury, home of Wimborne Town, to watch a Dorset Premier League fixture between Wimborne Town’s reserves and Holt United.

The New Cuthbury 3G is, as the name suggests, a Stadium with a modern artificial pitch. The ground also boasts a sectioned standing area for supporters as well as high quality floodlighting. The deluge that fell this week would have seen games on grass in the area cancelled but thankfully the artificial surface at New Cuthbury 3G was safe and playable.

Wimborne Town Reserves came into today’s fixture in a disappointing twelfth place, some six places and 13 points lower than their opposition today. Goals this season have come from Callum Clarke (10 goals), Finley Richardson (5 goals) and Declan Musendo (4 goals). Christer Warren, ex-pro with Southampton FC is the manager of Wimborne Town Reserves and he would have looked at today’s game as a must win, in his attempt to reignite the season.

Holt United, whose home is just a few miles north of Wimborne, have enjoyed a positive opening to the season and came into tonight’s fixture in sixth place, but with three games in hand on the teams directly above them. Goals have flowed for Holt United this season, with George Lane (13 goals), Alistair Garard (11 goals) and Samuel Bennett (8 goals) top scoring. Holt United are managed by Tom Rees.

The game opened with both teams cautiously passing and then hitting long balls which failed to seriously test the opposition defences. Then on 25 minutes, an error in the Wimborne Town defence let Jamie Power through for Holt United and he finished confidently to make it 0-1.

In the 36th minute the visitors were 0-2 ahead when a long ball fell to Jamie Power on the right hand side, who calmly fired home for his brace on the night.

At half time on a very cold evening, where temperatures hovered above freezing, the teams went in with Holt United leading by the two goal margin.

The second half saw Holt United continue to press forward, but as the half progressed Wimborne Town Reserves began to create their own chances.

As the fulltime whistle approached the home team took every opportunity to try to put a score on the board but sadly to no avail. At fulltime the visitors ended with all three points, to push harder on the top five. The 30 or so fans in attendance left having seen a hard fought and entertaining match.