SWINDON Supermarine capped off their home season with a 1-1 draw at home to Hartley Wintney in the Southern Premier Division.

Hartley came into the game with one of the best away records in the league, but after a rapid start, the visitors were being regularly pinned back inside their own half.

Marine had barely left the changing rooms when Hartley opened their account for the afternoon – some short, sharp passing saw Jack Ball tap home with barely a minute on the clock.

Matt Williams powered home a header, courtesy of a whipped Henry Spalding corner, eight minutes later though to put Marine on level terms.

In the second 45, some fluid link-up play and a clever step over from Harry Williams released birthday boy Stuart Fleetwood in on goal, however the Welshman opted to try and pass it back to Williams instead of shooting and the ball trickled wide.

Matt Liddiard had an excellent chance to bag the winner late on when he side-footed over from six yards following a Jamie Edge corner and such chances left manager Lee Spalding feeling his team had missed an opportunity to snatch three points.

Following Marine’s fifth league home draw of the season, Spalding said: “I was pleased with the performance.

“I thought we were a bit sleepy in the first five minutes, we weren’t the quickest out the blocks, but after that I thought we dominated to be fair.

“We created a lot of good chances and we were the better team – we could have won three or four if we were that little bit more clinical in front of goal.

“That was my only gripe today, that we didn’t take our chances, but it was a much-improved performance from the weekend, and I’m delighted with how the players have gone about it.”

After a slow start to the season where Marine were battling to stay up in their first season back at this level, Spalding’s troops have turned things around dramatically and until recently were fighting for a potential play-off spot.

Looking to kick on next season, Spalding hopes they can start next season as well as they have finished this at the Webbswood Stadium.

He said: “I think we’ve improved at home as the season has gone on.

“At the start of the season, I thought we struggled a bit with our home form, but I definitely think we’ve improved.

“The better the pitch is, the better that suits us in terms of how we want to play and the new squad of players that we’ve got are growing into our home ground.

“We’re making it a place where it’s hard to come here and beat us, which is what we need if we’re going to achieve anything next season.”