Romsey Town 0, Blackfield & Langley 0 THE POINT Romsey gained from this game was enough to guarantee them a fourth-place finish in their first season in Wessex Division 2.

The game, billed as a shootout between the division's two leading marksmen, never followed the script. Romsey's Simon De'ath was unavailable through work commitments, but any chance Blackfield's Neil Williams had of closing the gap in the race for the divisional 'Golden Boot' was stymied by an excellent marking performance from the dogged Eddie Carlin.

New acquisition Liam Hanlon did his best up front alongside Dean Constable, but he's not De'ath, and struggled to make an impact before being hauled off in favour of another youngster, Steve Carter, ten minutes from time. Williams only escaped from Carlin once, but fired over the bar. For Romsey, Constable had the best chance, but couldn't beat the visiting keeper.

For the rest, it was a steady rather than spectacular game. Town Defenders Paul King and Andy Foster looked assured alongside Carlin in the heart of the Romsey rearguard, while the midfield struggled to create.

One sour note was the dismissal of midfielder Andy Kemp for two bookable awkward tackles; he compounded the second offence with some verbals, which must have helped the referee to make up his mind!

Romsey now have a week off before their final match of the season at home to Petersfield Town on Saturday, April 30th.

They still have an outside chance of scraping into third place, but to achieve that aim they'll need Locks Heath not to win either of their last two games - against Blackfield & Langley and Shaftesbury.