Winchester City lost 2-1 at Tiverton in extra time, marking their first away loss of the season.As a consequence, Tiverton moves ahead of Winchester, despite having a game in hand.
Tiverton, like Winchester City, are past FA Vase champions from last season, and Leigh Robinson has succeeded long-serving manager Martyn Rogers. They have had a sluggish start to the season, but they entered this encounter having won their most recent league game. Robinson managed the Taunton club, who earned promotion to this level of football in 2017/18 with a total of three-figure points and goals scored.
Winchester made one change to their starting lineup from Tuesday, with I K Hill, who scored the crucial goal against Hungerford, replacing Jamie Barron. On Tuesday, Winchester’s five replacements were all on the bench: Alex Wilkie, Jordan Rose, Harry Nevins, Dom Panesa-Dower, and Ollie Balmer.

Winchester started strongly, with Tommy Wright shooting just wide, I K Hill, who was set up by Josh McCormick, causing Tiverton goalkeeper Zak Baker to save at the price of a corner, and Luka Chalwell forcing Baker to save as well. Winchester also had a prospective penalty appeal denied.

Tiverton grabbed the lead against the run of play in the 29th minute, when Dylan Jones’ brilliant run down the left side ended in a cross into the penalty box, which Joe Parker shot home. Parker also contributed two of Tiverton’s three goals against Winchester previous season. The goal appeared to give Tiverton a boost, and Luke Cairney had to make a fantastic stop to save Parker from scoring again.

Winchester replaced the injured Kieran Douglas with Alex Wilkie before halfway, but the game remained in favour of the hosts.

At halftime. Winchester sent on Ollie Balmer for Trevor Caborn, and in the early stages of the second half, Cairney made another stop from Parker, while Tommy Wright fired barely wide. Winchester, on the other hand, leveled the score 5 minutes into the second half when Ollie Balmer scored immediately from the second of two consecutive corners earned by the Winchester squad. Balmer scored his third goal in five games, two of which came within 20 minutes of replacing Trevor Caborn.

Following the goal, both goalkeepers were put into action, with Cairney making a key interception to stop a Tiverton effort and Baker in the home goal save an Ollie Balmer free kick. Baker makes two more superb stops to keep Winchester out, while Dylan Jones’ brilliant run creates an opportunity for Asa Hill, who shoots over from a good position.

Winchester made two further changes, with Dom Panesar-Dower replacing Luka Chalwell and Harry Nevins replacing Ollie Griggs. I K Hill had an effort stopped at the expense of a corner, but the match looked to be heading for a 1-1 draw until goal creator Dylan Jones became goal scorer, following a strong move Dylan Jones cut inside and scored with a low shot in the second minute of extra time.

It was a brutal manner for Winchester to suffer their first defeat in eight games, and it was the second time in five meetings between the clubs that Tiverton defeated Winchester 2-1, with the winning goal coming in extra time. After making the long trip to Tiverton, Winchester will travel to Merthyr on Tuesday, completing their three longest away league trips in a four-and-a-half week period, with an FA Cup trip to Tavistock sandwiched between these matches.

Winchester face Weymouth at home in the FA Cup on Saturday, following their journey to Merthyr.

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