Treloar School and College emerged as the winner from Alton’s 1-1 draw at home to Cobham in the Combined Counties League Premier Division South last Saturday.

A crowd of 215 raised £500 to help the Holybourne students and enjoyed a good game played in a great spirit.

The home side probably did enough during the second half to justify taking the three points but it was not to be, mainly because of the Cobham goalkeeper.

Among others he made two very important saves in a five-minute spell, thwarting Louis Russell on both occasions – one a block from close range with Russell bearing down on goal, and the other a stunning dive to his left from a goalbound drive from 25 yards.

Cobham were quicker out of the blocks in the first half, and even though clear chances were at a premium it was not a surprise when they took the lead on the half hour.

A long clearance got caught in the swirling wind that affected the game throughout and gave the advantage to the forward, who used his strength to stride forward and steer his shot past the advancing Lewis Mees.

This appeared to wake up the home side and they proceeded to push the visitors back, forcing numerous corners. From one of these, on 39 minutes, Alton were level. Alex Merrifield had two bites at the cherry before he shot home from 12 yards through a crowd of players.

Alton were definitely territorially on top in the second half, when the strong and gusting wind was in their favour, but the visitors were well organised and resolute in their defending, backing up the performance of their goalkeeper who dealt with everything that Alton could muster.

Alton manager Kevin Adair said: “We started a bit sluggish. They dominated the midfield, created the better chances in the first 30 minutes and took a deserved lead. We responded reasonably quickly to stay in the game but found it difficult to break them down.

“At half-time we made some changes but we didn’t really get much out of them. It was an average to middling performance, but we have had only one defeat in eight.”

Alton play at Balham in the league on Saturday at 3pm.