SHRIVENHAM teenager Zac Skinner was the hero after netting a late winner to give his side a 2-1 victory away at Flackwell Heath in the Hellenic Premier Division on Saturday.

After coming on with 20 minutes remaining, the 17-year-old finished off a flowing team move with aplomb to hand Shrivenham all three points and push them up to third behind local rivals Fairford Town.

Skinner, a product of Shrivenham’s academy, was making his full debut in Buckinghamshire and manager Gareth Davies was delighted to see another young player grasp his opportunity with both hands.

Davies paid tribute to the quality of both the development side and the youth teams in Shrivenham’s system before turning his attention back to his match winner.

Davies said: “We brought on Zac, who has had a couple of games for the development team, and it’s come off because he’s ended up scoring the winner. He’s gone home very happy.

“Our development team and our youth set up is flourishing and we’ve got a lot of good young players.

“When you chuck them in at the deep end, sometimes it can turn out to be a good thing, like with Zac.

“We told him to take up a position in between the full backs and centre backs – one straight ball through, he’s sat the goalkeeper down and put it in the net.

“I was really chuffed for him, and he took his goal superbly.”

Although Shrivenham did eventually record their seventh win in a row in all competitions, an early goal for the hosts threaten to end that streak at half a dozen games.

But once Ryan Stanners had squared the game just before half-time, manager Davies felt the game was there for the taking.

He said: “Flackwell are a good side and they’ll take points off teams this year, so that was a very, very good three points for us.

“We started really well and were on top when they scored.

“Their goal kind of came out of nowhere, and I didn’t think we deserved to be a goal down.

“Ryan Stanners scored just before half-time to get us back in the game, and we said to the players at half-time, Flackwell are there for the taking if you want it.

“We weathered a bit of a storm in first 15 minutes of the second half, but after that, we looked like we had that extra gear.”

Elsewhere, Fairford Town came from a goal down to beat Binfield 2-1 and remain second in Hellenic League Premier.

Nathan Hawkins smashed a free-kick into the net to equalise before Harry Ellis denied the hosts from the spot.

Harvey Scholes volleyed the winner late on for Jody Bevan’s side.

Meanwhile, Royal Wootton Bassett Town’s game against Easington Sports was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.