Andover Town1–3○New Milton Town

As we head into March and with only 2 league wins since Christmas Andover Town were desperate to end their losing streak as they welcomed high flying New Milton Town to Portway. A bitterly cold North wind greeted the teams at kick-off and Andover welcomed back Josh Bertie and Gary Thorne who both made the starting line-up.

Andover started brightly enough and were awarded a penalty in the 8th minute which Bertie duly converted. Both teams pressed forward urgently but the game swung back towards New Milton when a trip in the penalty area produced the second penalty in the 16th minute which striker Deem comfortably put away. The game settled down after the flurry of penalties and in the 20th minute a great cross from Holmes found Bertie who headed powerfully but just wide of the post. The half progressed with both teams pressing hard for another goal but the half closed at 1-1 which was a fair reflection of the play.

The pattern at the start of the second half was much the same but Andover’s progress was rudely interrupted in the 58th minute when New Milton’s number 10 Sampson spotted McCarthy off his line and from 40 yards out coolly lifted the ball over the rapidly retreating keeper to make the score 2-1. This seemed to knock the stuffing right out of Andover and it was no surprise then when the visitors scored again through Sampson to make the score 3-1 in the 74th minute. The game drifted towards the end with Andover never really threatening.

So the final scoreline of 3-1 adequately reflected Andover's performance. The pre-Christmas form and results now seem a distant memory and it goes without saying that Andover now desperately need a win in the league as they drop further down the table. As the old cliche goes this is definitely relegation form. The next match is on Wednesday March 1st away at Fleetlands with a 7.45pm kick-off.