Guildford City beat Thatcham Town 2-0 at the Spectrum to go into Christmas on a high despite remaining bottom of the Combined Counties League Premier Division South.

After a quiet first ten minutes Guildford started pressing Thatcham into mistakes all over the pitch, working the ball into the box but with no end product.

Thatcham pinged in a great ball which was met by a flying header, but Guildford’s new keeper Adam Withers showed amazing reactions to palm the ball away.

In the 33rd minute a lovely ball by Guildford’s Kai Zini gave Alex McLean a chance to shoot from outside the box and skim the crossbar.

Joel Oppong almost scored a goal of the season contender in the 44th minute, taking the ball from the halfway line and beating numerous defenders before Thatcham’s centre-back pulled off a brilliant tackle to stop him shooting.

Guildford opened the scoring in the fourth minute of stoppage time thanks to a questionable decision by a linesman to give them a corner. Zini whipped a perfect ball to the back post and McLean headed home.

In the 63rd minute Darnell Jon-Peter was brought down in the box by Thatcham keeper Maciej Wieczorek and referee Daniel Bright awarded Guildford a penalty.

Zini’s spot kick was poorly struck down the middle and saved by Wieczorek, but Zini followed up and smashed the rebound into the roof of the net.

Thatcham tried to get back into the game and in the 75th minute the ball dropped to a blue shirt on the edge of the box, but the shot flew over the bar.

In the 83rd minute Thatcham whipped a very dangerous free kick into the box and an attempted clearance was nearly deflected in by the back of a Thatcham player, but another great reaction save from Withers preserved Guildford’s clean sheet.

Charlie Matthews