FOLLOWING THE SALTMEN

Shortwood United 0 – 2 Droitwich Spa

29 March 2025

What a day! And what a great place to do it.

The Saltmen secured promotion to Step Five of the non-league pyramid this afternoon, at the excellent Meadowbank Stadium, home of Shortwood United, courtesy of two 2-0 away wins. Spa travelled to rural Gloucestershire needing just one point to effectively guarantee the Hellenic League Division One title or for Abingdon to take points off Redditch Borough. Not wishing to leave anything to chance, Spa seized the initiative by recording another impressive away win and Abingdon took home all three points home from their visit to Redditch.

The Droitwich men were made to work hard for their win. Quite rightly, Shortwood were in no mood to do Spa any favours and the opening stages of the game were evenly contested. The Saltmen looked nervous and a little too hurried but gradually found their feet. Then on the half hour, Perry Moss looked to have put Spa ahead, only for his neat finish to be ruled out as the linesman raised his flag after spotting a handball. The disappointment was only short lived. Within a minute, more excellent work by Moss saw him selflessly feed the ball to Nathan Binner who slotted the ball home and put Spa 1-0 up.

The lead was stretched to two on 42 minutes as that man Alex Dugmore rose to nod home a perfect Binner cross.

It was not all one way traffic though and just before the break the visitors had goalkeeper Dom Rogerson to thank for preserving their lead. His stunning reflex save just before the break preserved Spa’s clean sheet.

The second half was dominated by the Saltmen enjoying some great spells of possession and keeping our hosts pinned back in their half. News of Abingdon’s lead at Redditch filtered through and the huge contingent of Spa fans got ready to celebrate and started to exercise their singing voices. The referee finally called time and the celebrations began properly.

A quick pint and then we hit the M5. Next stop the Clubhouse at Kingys, where the players, officials and supporters could relax with a few pints and whatever Matt Fusco had in that yellow bottle.

A really enjoyable day and it was good that so many Spa fans managed to get to Shortwood to join in the celebrations. Our Following The Saltmen man of the match goes to Nathan Binner.

Droitwich travel to Clanfield next week.

See you there

Cheers

Steve