Cirencester Town 4

Winchester City 2

Cirencester Town bounced back from recent cup misery to climb into the play-off places on Tuesday night.

In a truly pulsating game, played at a furious pace throughout, Cirencester came from a goal down to record a superb victory against Winchester City - the side that dumped them out of The Emirates FA Cup 10 days prior to the match.

New signing Tommy Ouldridge, who arrived on loan from Hungerford Town for a second spell at the club, was thrown straight in for his debut.

It was a match that was action-packed from the start.

The visitors opened the scoring after 25 minutes when they won the ball on half-way and quickly supplied Oli Bailey who burst through for a one on one with Matt Wieczorek to confidently finish inside the left post.

Despite the setback, Cirencester continued to push forward and just before the interval the returning Ouldridge levelled as he calmly placed his shot inside the right post from the edge of the box and the sides went in level at half time.

Cirencester made the perfect start after the break when Alan Griffin headed in a free kick into the top right corner but they could not relax for a minute.

On the hour, after a number of chances went begging, Winchester equalised when Jamie Barron rifled in a shot from the edge of the area after Wieczorek had saved with his feet.

Neither side was willing to settle for a draw and both keepers had made important saves before Cirencester regained the lead in the 85th minute when Jack Freeman slipped the ball to Ben Whitehead who rode a challenge from keeper Ryan Pryce for a tap-in.

The Centurions made absolutely sure in added-time when Whitehead chased a ball to the right corner before cutting-in and curling his shot inside the left post to complete the scoring.

The win lifted Cirencester into fifth place in Evo-Stik Division One South and are four points behind leaders Yate Town.

Charlie Griffin’s side are back on the road as they take on 10th place Bideford in the league on Saturday.