Captain Cowan’s spectacular long-range effort completes Wessex League win for Baffins Milton Rovers at Blackfield & Langley

Captain James Cowan struck a long-range goal for Baffins in the win at Blackfield. Picture: Simon Hill Photography

Spotting the keeper off his line, Cowan netted from 35 yards as Shaun Wilkinson’s men claimed only a second Premier Division success in 12 matches.

Strikers Jason Parish and Rudi Blankson - the latter with his 23rd goal of the season - had netted in the closing stages of the first half to put Rovers in control at Gang Warily.

That completed a double, with Baffins having come from 0-3 down to beat Blackfield 4-3 at the PMC Stadium in December.

Rovers ended the game with three teenagers on the field in Ethan Gee - who played the whole game at left back - centre half Oscar Deans and central midfielder Harvey Welham. It was Deans’ first Wessex League appearance.

‘It was a good performance, a good win - I’m happy this week,’ stated Wilkinson.

‘In the last three games I think we’ve been decent as a group. We’ve been hard to break down, but this time we took our chances. It could have been a higher score - we dominated from start to finish.

‘It was good to keep a clean sheet, we’ve been working in training on being hard to break down.’

Though their recent run has seen them completely drop out of the promotion picture, Baffins can still have a say in who goes up.

They still have to play top two Hamworthy and Shaftesbury, both of whom they have beaten already - a fact which frustrates Wilkinson.

‘We’re a pretty young squad, we’ve been a bit naive,’ he said. ‘On our day I think we’re the best team in the league, and the results (v Hamworthy and Shaftesbury) have shown that.

‘It’s been a learning season, for myself and the players.

‘Hopefully this win will give us a bit of confidence. We want to end strongly and finish as high as we can.’