WINCHESTER City are finally back to winning ways after a well-earned 2-1 result at Abingdon United this afternoon.

Following a depressing run of eight straight Evo-Stik South & West defeats, the cathedral city side raised new year spirits as goals by Liam Robinson and Adam Beckett lifted them out of the bottom three.

“This result has been coming,” smiled owner Paul McCarthy.

“We were excellent today. It was non-stop effort from the lads. Fantastic.”

City took a 37th-minute lead when, following a fine passing move, ex-Eastleigh and Sholing attacking midfielder Robinson collected the ball on the edge of the area and confidently curled it into the bottom corner.

Winchester doubled their advantage ten minutes after the break when Beckett – a university student previously on Aylesbury’s books – headed home Ben Wilson’s free kick.

Abingdon, who have now lost five league games on the bounce, pulled one back through Carl Self with 15 minutes to go, but City held tight for a richly deserved victory.

“We could have had six goals,” said McCarthy. “It was never an easy game, but we were stretching them on the break and Liam (Robinson) got through one-on-one with the keeper at least three times.

“We needed that result. We’ve got a tough game coming up on Tuesday at home to league leaders Hungerford and that’s given us a bit of a boost.”

*In the Evo-Stik Premier Division Gosport Borough stretched their unbeaten run to 12 games with a 0-0 draw at Chippenham.