○Andover New Street5–4Andover Town

After 4 straight wins scoring 23 goals for with 4 against you could be forgiven for thinking that today’s game against neighbours Andover New Street would go well. Hard to imagine that though because New Street have had a fabulous season losing only 2 games and look nailed on certainties to finish as champions. A wonderful gesture from New Street before kick off saw a wreath laid and a minutes applause from both sides to show respect for Alan Mussell who gave so much of his life to football in Andover.

Town started on the front foot and took the lead in the 12th minute when a cross from Emans on the left was turned in by Josh Bertie. It’s quite difficult to describe exactly what happened in the next thirty minutes because by 35 minutes Town were 3-0 with 2 more goals coming from Ben Emans and Malachi Johnson. New Street were unrecognizable from the norm this season and were constantly torn apart by speedy approach work particularly from Bertie, Griffiths and Emans and former Street player Zach Hines was pulling all the strings from midfield. Half time score 3-0 to Town.

Not sure what the home crowd were thinking at this stage but the away fans were watching in disbelief which intensified when Johnson made it 4-0 after 60 minutes. If what happened in the first half was difficult to describe then what happened in the next 10 minutes was positively bizarre as Ross Cook scored three goals in quick succession, the last one being a penalty unnecessarily given away by the Town defence who by this stage were frozen in a state of panic and Street looked like scoring every time they broke through. 4-3 then after 70 minutes and it looked like only one team was going to win it at this stage. In the 88th minute Cook scored again with superb free kick from the edge of the box and the only thing which marred the winning goal in the 93rd minute was that even the neutrals in the crowd could see that it was palpably offside.

No matter Street won 5-4 and march on towards the inevitable championship and congratulations to them, especially after their near miss at the end of last season. Andover Town were totally and absolutely deflated at the final whistle – how can any team which is leading 4-0 after 60 minutes contrive to lose 5-4 with almost the last kick of the match. It will indeed be tough to get over this one.