DAVE Diaper felt Sholing’s battle with Bridgwater Town“had 0-0 written all over it” – until substitute Dan Mason intervened.

With just ten minutes remaining at the Silverlake Arena on Saturday, the youngest of the Boatmen’s three Mason brothers made an instant impact after coming off the bench.

His first involvement was to chest the ball into the path of brother Byron. The skipper worked his way upfield before teeing up a return pass for Dan to fire past the keeper. It was a pleasing end to an afternoon which had started with the teams being welcomed onto the pitch by a guard of honour from Sholing’s victorious under-15 side, who beat Horndean 2-1 in the final of the Hampshire FA Under-15 Cup.

Had the Boatmen made the most of their first-half chances, they would have taken a clear lead into the break, but Marvin McLean shot wide one-on-one, Barry Mason also smacked one past the post and Dan Miller failed to convert a decent headed opportunity at the back stick.

Bridgwater made a flying start to the second half and twice came close to scoring, first when Kyle Tooze’s teasing cross was almost turned in by the diving Joe Bushin and then when Tooze himself hit the post.

But neither side could grab hold of the game on another chilly, breezy day in Portsmouth Road and Sholing boss Diaper admitted he was mentally settling for a point until Mason made his telling intervention.

“We should have gone in 3-1 up at the break but, the longer the game went on, it had 0-0 written all over it,” he said.

“They’re a difficult side to play against and they defended well. I thought a few of our lads looked a bit weary after Wednesday’s Hamphire Senior Cup semi-final. That was a really big effort (a 1-0 win over AFC Bournemouth’s development squad) and it took it out of us a bit.

“I thought for the first time this season we’d be able to name an unchanged side, but TJ Cuthbertson got a knock on the ankle and it would have been a bit risky to play him, so we moved Jack Smith to centre half and Les Mwenze came into midfield.

“Dan Mason did really well coming off the bench and scoring. The referee found five or six extra minutes from somewhere and the last bit of the game seemed to take an eternity!”

Sholing, still 17th, return to action away to 16th-placed Tiverton Town on Saturday.