Goalless in the sun but woodwork struck four times
Ascot United drew 0-0 against Windsor FC on a warm Easter Saturday afternoon at The Racecourse. Both sides had chances as the crossbar was rattled four times, but neither side did enough to earn all three points.
With their play-off aspirations already gone, a top-six berth guaranteed and one eye on next month’s cup final, the onus in Ascot’s camp was very much about self-preservation as they played the first of their final three league games.
The two sides had a win each in the season’s earlier two clashes – a county cup win for Ascot trumped by a later league win for the Royalists – and both sides could have been ahead in a goalless first half where the crossbar was struck three times.
The first time it was struck was in the 13th minute courtesy of Danny Horscroft’s flashing header for Windsor, and he would fire narrowly wide soon afterwards as the visitors looked most likely to score.
But Ascot gained a strong foothold and almost scored when George Lock somehow squeezed a shot across the six-yard box just before the half-hour mark; the ball only half-cleared before Charlie Morgan’s goal-bound follow up was headed clear.
Windsor were ultimately lucky to go in level when Sean McCormack’s cross was diverted onto the top of the bar before Keaton August’s thunderbolt crashed back off the underside of it in added time.
The second had was totally devoid of clear chances until the 90th minute when Taylor Morgan’s audacious overhead hook from near the by-line dropped into the crossbar with visiting ’keeper Conaill Ryan watching-on, but that was as close as it got in a tepid second half.
Ascot United: Gray, Lock, Masters, Scott, Bouwers, Bailey, McCormack, Merrick, T. Morgan, August (Surpanu), C. Morgan (Harper). Subs unused: Sykes, Walters, Richardson
Image is Louis Bouwers, shooting-stars.co.uk