Hartley Wintney celebrated their first home win of the season when a solitary first-half goal gave them three points over fellow league strugglers North Leigh.

Early play showed the Row to have an edge and on 12 minutes Zidan Akers and Anis Nuur combined well with the latter’s shot bringing out a save from the visitors keeper Ben Taylor.

North Leigh edged into the game and on 18 minutes a corner from Jordan Alves found Amer Awadh who shot wide.

On 25 minutes the Row had a good chance to take the lead. Paul Hodges fed Jacob Bancroft who got behind the North Leigh defence. Taylor came out and parried the Bancroft shot which fell for Hodges who was unlucky to see his effort deflected just wide.

Hartley finally got the breakthrough goal on 40 minutes.  Hodges and Louie Paget managed to force the ball through midfield before the visitors managed to scramble the ball away.  It fell to Zidan Akers coming in from the left. The winger looked up took aim and sent a perfect shot from 25 yards over Taylor into the net (1-0)

Having worked hard to get the lead the Row almost pressed the self-destruct button on 44 minutes. Loose play in midfield was followed by indecision in defence allowing Will Owen a clear run in on goal. Adam Desbois came out and Owen dribbled around him but shot into the side netting from a difficult angle.

The Row started the second half brightly and on 49 minutes Paget set up Akers who saw his parting shot saved by Taylor. A minute later Hodges combined with Nuur who shot over the crossbar.

The visitors pressed for the equaliser and on 82 minutes Owens found Levi Steele who managed to deflect goalwards only for  Desbois to make a good reaction save.

The visitors continued to press and the six minutes on the ‘Time added on’ board gave the Row faithful the collywobbles.  However, Hartley Wintney held on for an important win to help their quest to get away from the foot of the table.