Ben's got the Wright stuff at Barlows park

Tadley Calleva maintained their incredible home record at the weekend, beating Fleet Town 3-0 to make it 27 Combined Counties Premier Division South points from a possible 27 at Barlows Park this season.

The scoreline was perhaps a little harsh on Fleet, who proved more than a match for the Tadders and were left to rue lapses of concentration in the final five minutes of both halves.

That said, Tadley had the better of the first half chances, Connor Thorne’s 18th minute header perhaps the best of them, but the midfielder saw his effort inch past the post.

The sides looked to be heading into the break level but with seconds left on the clock, set-piece specialist Ben Wright curled a delicious free-kick into the top corner to hand the hosts a 1-0 lead at half time.

Much like the first 45, the second half was a close contest and with five minutes to go, Fleet were still in with a chance of snatching a late point.

Wright had other ideas, however, as some silky footwork from the frontman released Chris Horton who squared the ball to Jamie Johnston to tap home to make it 2-0 and all but wrap up the three points.

A minute later and it was 3-0 when Jordan Goater, Wright’s dead-ball deputy, fired home a second free-kick to wrap up another three points, Tadley’s ninth home league win in succession.

"We're a footballing side so we suit playing at home because not all surfaces are like ours," Ben Dillon, Tadley's joint manager, said.

"We've had a couple of bad results away from Barlows and I think that's because we've struggled to adapt to different pitches.

"We lost to both Croydon and Balham who share the same pitch, they played a game to suit the surface and we couldn't cope with it.

"We obviously want to improve results elsewhere but it's fantastic to be unbeaten at home, a lot of teams dream of that."

Tadley, who are up to seventh, will be hoping to prove themselves on the road this weekend with a tough trip to fourth placed Knaphill while the visit of Premier League side AFC Bournemouth has been rescheduled from Tuesday, December 12 to Tuesday, January 10 – that will be a once in a lifetime test, but the Tadders know there’s no place like home.