Andover Town1–0○AFC Stoneham

Andover Town completed an already successful season by adding the Russell Cotes Cup to their small but growing trophy cabinet at the Portway on Tuesday in front of a crowd of almost Four Hundred. On the way to the final Stoneham beat two Wessex Premier league sides as well as Southern league AFC Totton so, an upset was always a possibility. During this final at times they were the better side but failure to take their chances arguably proved to be their Achilles heel,whilst Andover’s performance may have lacked quality their determination to win this major trophy was always in evidence.

Andover made a solid start to the game as Manney Soetan and Harrison Gilkes both went close and twice in quick succession only some desperate defending prevented Andover taking the lead. Stoneham absorbed the pressure well and soon played their way back into the game.They were always quick on the break and it was not difficult to see why they had reached this stage of the competition. They were the more dominant in the later stages of the first half and twice Luke Cairney made fine saves to keep Andover’s hopes alive. However it was not all one way traffic and a speculative long range volley by Reece Rusher flew over the bar but was low enough to be considered a chance.

Half time Andover Town 0-0 AFC Stoneham

At the start of the second half Andover made two tactical substitutions with Alex Dockree and Connor Cocklin respectively replacing Ben Cook and Joe Chamberlain. The changes had an immediate impact and it was Dockree who neatly set up Rusher would be the first to agree he should have done better with the chance. Andover were now playing much better.Both Glasspool and Gilkes had one on one chances with goalkeeper Scott Williams who pulled off two excellent saves to keep the game alive for his side. At the other end Stoneham were unable to maintain their first half impact with only one real chance created that failed to be a problem for Cairney. As the prospect of a penalty shoot out started to look likely Andover broke the deadlock with just eight minutes left. On the edge of the area Zach Glasspool held off the challenge of two covering defenders before his cross to the far post reached Harrison Gilkes (pictured scoring) who planted his header into the top corner of the net. In the second minute of added time Soetan almost made it two but his pin point free kick was scrambled away by Williams. It was a dramatic end to a dramatic season.