Alton Town manager Dave Hawtin shared in Blackfield & Langley's sense of relief after their 1-1 draw when news filtered through from Hurn Bridge that Whitchurch United had lost their 'must win' survival fixture at Christchurch.

For the Watersiders, it meant they lived to fight a third season as a Jewson Wessex League club. For Hawtin, it eradicated any sense of guilt about Whitchurch finishing in bottom spot.

In truth, Blackfield should have been buried under a landslide of goals at Anstey Road on Saturday, but Alton's shooting was so woeful that there were jokes doing the rounds that they were on a mission to keep the Watersiders up.

Some of the second-half misses, in particular, defied belief and, for all their pressure, the north Hampshire club never did get an Alton name on the scoresheet.

When it came, their equaliser was a looping header from Blackfield's supporters' player-of-the-season Jimmy Hooper - straight over his own keeper!

Hawtin, a former Whitchurch player, confessed: "Whitchurch losing let me off the hook. I'd have been gutted if they'd won and we'd got them relegated through not scoring the goals we should have done against Blackfield.

"I was disappointed with us today. I wanted to be seen to be doing the best by Whitchurch and I tried to get that message across to the boys. But we missed a lot of chances and it's a flat finish to our season."

There was no such deflation in the buoyant Blackfield camp as recently appointed managers Tony Feeney and Andy Price pulled off their own heroic version of The Great Escape.

The Watersiders had just 12 points to show for nearly a season's work when the pair took over at the Gang Warily helm four games ago but, miraculously, the new bosses managed to steer them through a tense finale unbeaten.

Even when the club were in the depths of doom and gloom leading up to Terry Smith's resignation as manager last month, chairman Ian Hoare was always confident the club would survive.

But his faith must have been stretched to the limit on Saturday as he prowled restlessly along the touchlines of the Bass Sports Ground wondering how a tense afternoon would unfold.

Leading by Steve Wheatland's 38th-minute diving header from Paul Gutteridge's cross, the Watersiders' hearts were in their mouths as Alton squandered chance after chance after break.

Admittedly Blackfield went closest of all when, in a rare foray forward, Wheatland clipped a shot off the outside of the post, but home supporters were rendered virtually speechless by Town's wastefulness at the other end.

Blackfield skipper Simon Eagle nodded a goalbound Nick Guy header off the line and keeper Tom Hawkins made a handful of top-drawer saves, but mostly Alton were their own worst enemies.

Spurred on by Hooper's own goal, they mounted wave upon wave of attack but Dave Bridger stroked the ball criminally wide from two yards, Guy sent a towering header over and, in a nail-biting finale, Richard Mealey burst clean through only to shoot tamely at Hawkins.

Cheers erupted from the Blackfield changing rooms when the Whitchurch result was confirmed and relieved chairman Hoare admitted: "I'm extremely happy. Tony and Andy have done a great job in their short time in charge.

"They've got the players' heads up and Blackfield has felt like a club again. Our results have shown that.

"It's been a long, hard season and not a particularly happy one at times, but it's all worked out well in the end.

"The club worked hard to get Wessex football and we deserve to stay up. I'm proud of every one of our players and extremely pleased for our committee members."

Hoare, chairman for the last five seasons, was pretty chuffed for himself too, confessing: "I didn't want to be the one to bring the club up and then take them back down again."

A Blackfield man on and off for over 20 years, co-boss Feeney admitted it had been a nerve-racking afternoon and joked: "The dug-out's got a few holes in it!

"That was probably the worst we've played in our four games in charge, but it's a big relief that we're safe. We've already got some more players lined up for next season to make sure this doesn't happen again."

His partner Price was modest about the late-season transformation he had helped inspire at Gang Warily. He said: "Tony and I haven't done anything special. We've just changed the odd player and organised them better.

"I'm really pleased for the players because they've proved they can do it."