PEWSEY Vale were rewarded for their patience as their first outing in over a month saw them move off the bottom of the Sydenhams League Division One table last weekend.

After beating Totton & Eling on December 19, a raft of postponements have forced Adi Holcombe’s side to twiddle their thumbs but on Saturday, they hauled themselves off the foot of the table by completing successful overseas campaign.

Vale made the trip to the Isle of Wight to take on East Cowes Victoria and despite a few wobbles, they clinched the three points necessary to leapfrog the Vics, who finished the match with 10 men, into 17th place.

Pewsey chairman Lewis Taylor, who was in the dugout at Beatrice Avenue, is hoping that his team are on track to maintain an upward trajectory.

“It’s been very difficult for a lot of teams in the local area and in our league because of the weather and the amount of games being called off,” said Taylor.

“We’d not had a game for a while but I think that some of the fitness work that we’ve been doing has started to hit home.

“We’ve also freshened up the squad with a few new players too – Kristian Greer scored on his debut and Aidan Maycock also scored, which makes it two in two for him.

“Although we won, I was actually a little bit disappointed because it should have been a lot more comfortable.

“But we built on the win over Totton, which was important. We’ve got some tough games coming up bit hopefully we can continue to build going forward.”

Ricky Franklin netted to get the visitors off to the perfect start and they were soon 2-0 up after debutant Greer added his name to the scoresheet.

East Cowes hit back through Darren Williams to make it 2-1 before the break but Vale held firm and were handed the opportunity to extend their advantage when Maycock was brought down in the area.

Franklin missed the resultant spot-kick but Pewsey weren’t made to pay for his failure to convert as Maycock notched their third of the afternoon shortly afterwards.

The Vics did manage to set up a tense finale as Williams found the net again to make it 3-2 but the hosts’ chances of a late comeback were curtailed as they had a man sent off for kicking out at a Vale player.

Holcombe’s side host table-toppers Portland United next weekend.