Evo-Stik Div 1 South & West.

Sholing 2 Cirencester Town 3.

CIRENCESTER TOWN snatched an 88th-minute winner to gain a hard-fought three points at Sholing.

In a fine, all-round team performance, Jamie Reid donned the captain’s armband following the departure in the week of Matt Sysum and led from the front with a man-of-the-match display on his 150th game for the club.

It was Reid who gave Ciren an early lead, powerfully heading a Ben Wells free kick into the top right hand corner in the third minute.

It got better still for the visitors in the 11th minute, when the ball spun to Scott Griffin 30 yards from goal and he hit a superb swerving shot into the top corner.

Sholing pulled a goal back in the 19th minute when Reid was adjudged to have pushed a Sholing player over in the box. Barry Mason coolly placed the penalty into the corner.

The remainder of the first half was evenly fought; Bennett, Griffin and Wells all put chances wide and, at the end of the half, Lee Clatworthy was required to make two great saves.

Sholing upped the pace in the second half and Clatworthy was by far the busier of the two keepers.

In the 68th minute, after a real mix-up in the Ciren box, Marvin McLean was presented with an open goal which brought the scores level.

Sholing now had the bit between their teeth and nearly scored a third when Lewis Fennemore's lobbed shot cleared Clatworthy, but also the bar.

Sholing were close again in the 77th minute with Clatworthy making a double save.

But, with ten minutes remaining, Ciren came to life again. Shepherd had a good effort deflected out for a corner and Griffin hit a shot on the turn which was inches wide of the post.

The game was eventually decided in the 88th minute when a through ball found substitute Sam Packer on the right. His pacy run took him into the box and from a tight angle he fired the ball into the far corner.

Cirencester Town: Clatworthy, Allard (Shepherd, 76), Bennett, Dunton, Wells, Thompson, Reid (capt), Mortimer-Jones, Collier (Packer, 68), Griffin, O'Brien. Unused sub: Hawkins.