Cheddar manager Craig Mawford came off the bench to score a last-minute winner to crown a 3-2 win in their local derby at Wells City on Saturday.

Both sides created early openings with Danny Griffiths, returning to the line-up, heading inches over Harley Wilkinson’s crossbar before Wells forward Adam Wright saw a cheeky 30-yard lob almost catch Cheddar goalkeeper Kieran Webster off-balance.

Two further efforts came Cheddar’s way in an engaging first 10 minutes, with a swift interchange between industrious Ethan Reed and hardworking young striker Nathaniel Groom, who stepped inside his marker just inside the box to fire a shot on target but saw it gathered well by Wilkinson.

Reed then burst through central midfield, shrugging off the attentions of sturdy challenges before shooting from distance but failing to get his effort on target.

On 27 minutes Wright opened the scoring after he was given the slightest of half chances, as the Welshman sent a diving header past Webster for his 31st of the season.

But three minutes later, the visitors were on level terms as Groom, playing with tremendous energy and vision, showed composure and control in the 18-yard box, nipping the ball off a Wells defender before sending a low hard shot into the net.

There were no further goals until the 75th minute as a misplaced defensive clearance allowed Charlie Moon and accomplice Ben Padfield to seize on Cheddar’s misdemeanour and set up Wright to slide the ball past Webster for his second goal of the game.

The visitors were far from done, again pushing forward, and with two minutes of normal time left Griffiths, so often the hero of Cheddar’s top performances in recent years, positioned himself at the back post to send a header past Wilkinson for a late equaliser from Bennett's superb delivery.

It seemed the points would be evenly shared, but the game had one more twist in the tale as with two minutes of injury time played Mawford brought himself on as substitute as a makeshift striker.

Within a minute of appearing on the field of play, he robbed Wells centre-back Ben Robertson of the ball, side-stepped both the defender and goalkeeper Wilkinson to send his shot skidding into the net for all three points.