DAN BATEMAN was unable to hide his relief after Wokingham and Emmbrook ended a run of 14 straight defeats in the Hellenic Premier Division with an emphatic 5-0 victory against Abingdon United at the Investec Perpetual Triangle.
Led by a Josh Pearson hat-trick and further strikes from Luke Scope and Dan Collier, the Sumas not only doubled their win count for the season, but also celebrated a first triumph in the league on home soil for the campaign.
Beating a side also scrapping for points at the wrong end of the table – who stunned reigning champions Flackwell Heath the weekend before – means the hosts moved to within a point of neighbours Bracknell Town at the foot of the standings, with joint-boss Bateman hoping the club’s season can finally begin in earnest.
“It has been a long time coming, that is for sure,” he said.
“I’m really pleased and we have been threatening that kind of result for weeks, but have come up against some good sides and we were unlucky the weekend before (at Longlevens) where we lost in the last minute and didn’t really deserve to.
“On Saturday is was another good performance and everything went for us and we scored the goals at the right time – and they were really good goals, so we’re well pleased.”
Bateman added: “It has been a long hard slog this season, so let’s not get carried away; one Swallow doesn’t make a summer, but we need to build on this.”
A problem for Wokingham this season has been scoring goals, yet they were to break the deadlock in this encounter in just the fourth minute through Scope and never looked back.
Collier seized on an opportunity to put the hosts two goals to the good going in at the break, with Pearson wrapping up a welcome win after the restart.
The pick of his treble came when putting the side 3-0 ahead on 69 minutes when flashing a strike into the top corner.
“We know what Josh (Pearson) is all about,” said Bateman of the midfielder, who recently returned to the club from league rivals Binfield.
“He came through the youth section here and all three goals were really well taken, not one of them was a gimme.
“We went in at half-time 2-0 up, but that is a dangerous lead and we needed a third to kill the game off, and the goal was pretty special, as there was a good bit of work down the left.
“It was a great finish and from that moment on we never looked back. We could have scored more but we’re happy with five goals and a clean sheet.
“Scoring the first goal was important, and scoring early doors relaxed us.
“The problem we have had this season is when we have conceded the first goal, you can see that psychologically our heads drop and the performances suffer as a result.
“Hopefully we can build on this.”
Boosted by this victory, Wokingham and Emmbrook will now be looking to take more points off another team around them in the standings this weekend, where they are away at 15th-placed Milton United.
Co-manager Bateman, though, is still looking at things with a great deal of perspective, saying: “I have said to the lads the pressure is off now.
“We are still bottom of the league and people are expecting us to go down and many teams expect to beat us, but hopefully Saturday has shown we can cause a surprise.
“We will be looking at Saturday as a game where we need to try and get the three points if we are to increase our chances of staying up, and we will be going there with a strong squad.”
