Ware pounce late to leave the Eagles empty-handed

The first few minutes saw Ware take the game to Bedford, but there were no clear cut chances to be had.

Town’s Leroy Griffiths then tried an audacious shot from wide on the left, with the ball narrowly clearing the bar.

Just after the midway point, Griffiths shot into a crowded area, but there were too many bodies in the way.

Soon afterwards, Josh Beech fed Griffiths on the right. The veteran forward brushed aside Murat Karagul to cross into the area, but Kyal McNulty mistimed his shot and the ball spun into the arms of Tom Coulton.

Despite their dominance early on, Ware had their first real chance in the 37th minute as Khale Da Costa’s corner saw Karagul come racing in to direct the ball wide of the mark.

A minute later, the home side wasted a good chance after Dernell Wynter released Da Costa, and with a clear sight of goal, the midfielder put the ball wide.

Just before the half-time whistle, the Eagles had to endure some intense Ware pressure and Ashley Harris had to save from Wynter, after he took advantage of a cruel deflection off Ollie Peters.

Into the second half, a rebound inside the Bedford area fell nicely for Wynter, but Harris had raced out of his goal to put the striker off.

Barely 60 seconds later, Harris pulled off a wonderful save, tipping Da Costa’s effort over the bar.

With just over 15 minutes to go, Griffiths’ free-kick hit the Ware wall, and from the rebound, the second bite at the cherry was saved by Coulton.

The winning goal came on 77 minutes, and it was down to lack of teamwork, as Josh Beech was hemmed in on the Bedford left by three Ware players.

With no team-mate to help, Beech – in attempting to clear – saw his clearance rebound off a Ware player into the path of Wynter who turned to hit an unstoppable shot into the top left hand corner of the net.

The last chance of the game fell to Town’s Dominic Morgan-Griffiths, but his cheeky flick and lob was a bit too high as it just cleared the Egham crossbar.