Pitchside caught up with their manager Jason Braidwood after the match, who was adamant that his side were worthy winners.

Speaking to Pitchside, he said, “I think we deserved the win. We bided our time and finally got the goal we were looking for.

“We thoroughly deserved the win to be honest.

“I thought the first half effort against the wind, there was only one team out there.

“They didn’t really trouble us with the wind and we sometimes like playing against the wind because we can keep the ball on the ground, even on a tricky pitch.”

The game was accompanied by blustery conditions which is always difficult to deal with but, Thatcham’s Richard Witt, who scored their second goal from the penalty spot, after Bob McClay had put them one up, was solid throughout.

Braidwood agreed, “Richard Witt I thought was man-of-the-match. He was absolutely tremendous for us today.

“He’s not our regular penalty taker but his confidence is oozing at the moment so we let him take it at the end.”

The race for the title is still firmly in Winchester City’s hands, as they stand a point behind Thatcham but have two games in hand.

Winchester’s latest victory at Wimborne, by a solitary goal to nil took the smile off Braidwood temporarily.

“That’s not the result I was looking for,” groaned the Thatcham boss.

“I thought maybe Wimborne might have got a draw out of that.

“Winchester City are a good side and at the end of the day I keep hearing these people saying that they’re not playing well but, at this stage of the season it’s not about playing well, it’s about getting points.

“It’s going to be hard to keep up with Winchester but at the end of the day we’ve just got to keep winning games.

“The pressure is still on them. We’re still one point ahead in the table and the pressure is on them to get the points.

“You’ve heard it so many times that managers like to have the points on the board and it’s true.

“They almost slipped up the other week when Cowes missed a penalty in the last minute.

“The players that Winchester have got down there, it’s just great to be going toe to toe with them.”

The FA – God bless ‘em – have thrown everyone in non-league football into complete chaos and confusion, with teams not knowing where they need to finish to get promotion.

How many teams will go up? How many will go down? Etc. Nobody knows. A situation that will frustrate any manager looking to gain promotion. Braidwood is no different.

He added, “We need to get promotion and we said at the start of the season that we need to finish in the top three because that’s what the FA said then, now they’re changing it and it’s a managers nightmare to be honest.

“We just want to know what we need to do to get promotion. If we need to finish in second place then that’s what the boys are geared up for.

“The FA have got to pull their fingers out and make a decision.

“It’s very annoying. We’re having work done on our ground next week and we’ve got an inspection for grading on around March 28 I think.

“It’s no good carrying all that work out though if the FA are going to muck us all around.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if some teams take the FA to court because clubs are spending all this money because they don’t want to miss out.”

The Thatcham gaffer has done a tremendous job over the past two season’s, taking his side to third spot last season and ending up runners up in the Wessex League Cup and, this season, they are the only side capable now of pushing Winchester City all the way in the race for the title.

Braidwood puts his smile back on, “I’m delighted for what we’ve achieved as a young manager.

“My career was cut short at Swindon Town because of injury.

“The boys work hard on and off the pitch and they’re just really good lads.

“I doubt any other club has got quite the same camaraderie as my lads.

“They hate it when they lose. We’ve only lost four this year and when we have lost don’t we know it.

“It’s just great to be going with Winchester.

“Winchester are a good side and they’re a real credit to the Wessex League and I do hope that both of us can get out of it to be honest.

“I still think that Gosport have an outside chance with Alex Pike in charge.

“As a football manager you can’t rule them out until it’s mathematically out of the equation and we’ve got them next week.

“A draw will do us next week whereas they’ve got to go for the win.”

Pitchside suggested to Braidwood that Thatcham play all their games away from home, having not lost on their travels since Easter last season at Moneyfields.

Braidwood understandably is proud of their impressive record on their travels.

“We had a chat about this and the last time someone said we lost away from home was against Moneyfields, last Easter Saturday.

“It’s a great record to have and we’ve dropped six points out of a possible 54 now.

“I think when teams come to our place we get a bit frustrated because teams will play with just one up front against us.

“But when we come away teams just want to play football against you and that is just music to our ears because we like open games.

“Fair play to James (Wood) today because he’s gone with a 3-5-2 formation and we had the same formation and I think to be fair with the elements today, it was a great game of football.

“I thought it was great advert for the Wessex League.”