It was nothing pretty from a Kidlington perspective, but points override performances at this crucial part of the season, and to the Greens credit they dug deep to ensure all three went to the Home side.

Chances came thick and thin but a ‘Man Of The Match’ performance from Goalkeeper Jack Hopwood dismissed Ware from forcing the net to bulge, who travel back to Hertfordshire empty handed, and feeling like they deserved something more.

Scoring goals, which I’m sure you’ll be tired of me saying, has been the outright dilemma of Kidlington’s season who lie second bottom of the table based on ‘Goals Scored’. So in came new striker, Josh Davis, a hardworking forward who runs off the shoulder and has many goals to his name, including a rocket of a header early on today in his debut to already create a name for himself.

It’s beginning to look compact at the wrong end of the table, but Manager Mark Massingham will have little to no complaints with how the first half panned out for Kidlington.

Davis broke the deadlock after 11 minutes played, when Kiddy were well on the front foot. Maestro midfielder Jack Gardner swung in yet another satisfactory cross from a corner to meet the head of an unmarked Josh Davis, who directed it firmly into the bottom corner, no stopping that one; 1-0.

Kidlington remained on the front foot and it all seemed to be going The Greens’ way, Davis thundered the post just moments after finding the back of the net. Centre-half Ben Richards also had a golden opportunity to increase Kiddy’s lead, with a header that looked harder to miss than score, but was unable to keep it down and saw his effort loop over the bar.

Hopwood produced the performance of his life to keep the Ware front line at bay: close range shot stops, single, double, triple saves; it had everything you’d want in a Goalkeeper, leaving The Blues extremely embittered.

To the away side’s credit, it was all Ware in the second interval as Kidlington didn’t really have a sniff from the get go. Their biggest chance came through no fault of their own, but a miscommunication from Hopwood and Richards sent the ball loosely rolling towards goal, only for Captain Jack Smith to do what he does best, and clear it off the line.

Kidlington were admittedly on the backfoot for the majority of the half, as Ware continued to huff and puff but the wall simply wouldn’t fall down for them. It was a game that deserved more goals at both ends, but we were left with just one. A handful more saves from Hopwood were thrown into the mix, resulting in a first clean sheet in over a month for Kidlington.

A determined, committed, desired Kidlington side got themselves over the line, a real team performance. A crucial win sends The Greens up to 16th, with breathing space of 3 points from the relegation zone.

KIDLINGTON FC: Hopwood, M. Smith, Bailey, Jenkins, J. Smith ©, Richards, Bessasa-Grant (James 86’), Gardner (Ryan-Phillips 65’), Davis, Ferguson (Payne 70’), Cowmeadow.