FAWLEY AFC featured two new names on the scoresheet as they arrested a slide of three straight Sydenhams Premier defeats against Bemerton Heath Harlequins on Saturday.

Two-goal Dan Fry, newly signed from Hythe & Dibden, and Jordan Mellor edged the Oilers home 3-2 at Long Lane – their first league win since late August.

Both were making their full debuts for the Watersiders who had a whopping 15 players unavailable across the first and reserve teams.

But despite the upheaval, Richie Coxall's Fawley had enough in the tank to dig out a winner after twice having their lead wiped out by Bemerton’s Graham Mankin, who struck his first from the penalty spot.

“We had a number of key players out with injuries etc, mainly midfielders and strikers,” explained Fawley chairman Kevin Mitchell.

“Charlie Willett’s in America, Dylan Knight’s suspended, Ben Bolton and Roy Johnson are injured, Zac Willis was unavailable and we’ve still not got Elliott Earl back from injury.

“But we were able to call in one or two with Tom Hardiman playing his first game of the season for us and promising, young player Damian Davies making only his second appearance of the season.

“We only had 12 fit players but we put in a good performance and played well.”

Mankin’s spot kick, scored just before the break, was the first time in five Wessex fixtures that the Oilers had conceded a first-half goal.

“We haven’t been playing badly but we’ve been suffering second-half setbacks. We’ve let in a lot of goals between the 86th and 90th minutes and have not been finishing games off,” said Mitchell. “We were probably due to hold on for one!

“Mind you,” he laughed, “the referee had trouble with his watch on Saturday and we ended up playing 100 minutes.

“The ref said he’d only played three minutes of added time, but both linesmen confirmed afterwards that it had been ten.

“We joked that the players were having a whip-round to buy him a new watch!”