Whitchurch United finally ended their tortuous end of season fixture pile up with heavy defeats at tit;e chasing Sholing on Thursday and Bournemouth Poppies on Saturday.

Thursday’s loss at Sholing was not as one-sided as the score suggests as Whitchurch battled and defended well.

Boss Jim Macey welcomed back Paul Coventry and Mark Everiss for rare turnouts for the Jam Boys who were one down at half-time – an error gifting prolific striker Lee Wort the opener.

After the break Adam Pearson headed a corner back across goal for Matt Scott to equalise but Sholing came back with a second in a goalmouth scramble and the third a cool finish from Ashley Jarvis. Wort made it four near the end On Saturday Poppies beat United 5-1 at Victoria Park with braces for Fawzi Saadi and Elliot Ward and Sam Pekun also on target.

Louis Macey netted for Whitchurch who can look back on the season with much pride despite the tail off towards the end. Before the rains came and ruined the momentum the side had going and at the same time took away much of the match fitness, Whitchurch had surprised many on their first campaign in the top flight for many years as they were expected to struggle after losing a number of last season’s Division One runner-up squad.

Since losing the much postponed League Cup semi-final to Division One champions Petersfield Town and the North Hants Senior Cup Final to Alresford Town the squad have struggled with three or four games a week and will now regroup ready for the pre season friendlies in a couple of months’ time.