Andover Town 5–0 Millbrook

It was the first time at the Portway for our visitors Millbrook who are enjoying their first season in the Wessex League. After a slow start for them where we won 7-1away in September they have now settled into their new environment and results have improved. The kick off saw bright sunshine with thankfully no wind and no sign of Storm Eunice or any other storm for that matter. This was skipper Brendan Holmes 150th game for Andover Town, Brendan has been a great stalwart for the team in all those games and the hope is that he continues for many more games It was very important for Andover to get back to winning ways after 3 consecutive defeats and to push on until the end of season to ensure reaching the play offs for promotion to the Premier League.

The first half started quite slowly but burst into life in the 11th minute when Ryan Griffiths lashed in a shot from the right edge of the penalty area which flew across the face of the goal and nestled in the bottom left hand corner of the net. Town were playing with three at the back again and with the resulting four in midfield they began to dominate that area of play. In the 22nd minute a strong shot from David Jerrard was parried by the keeper but Town pressed on and in the 32nd minute Jamie Ritchie slotted in the second goal scoring through a crowd of players in the penalty area. In the age old cliche of taking one for the team that's what Brendan Ebireri did in the 33rd minute when he was yellow carded by bringing down the Millbrook right winger just over the half way which prevented him from bearing down on goal. Town continued to press as half time approached and in the 40th minute pressure from Jake Watson resulted in an own goal from Millbrook. So the first half ended after an assured performance from Andover which gave them a 3-0 lead at the break.

The second half continued much as the first and on the hour Ryan Griffiths got his second goal by forcing the ball into the net after a terrific melee involving players from both teams in the penalty area. Shortly afterwards the Millbrook centre back Greg King was given a straight red card by the referee after a very robust challenge. Then Griffiths found space on the edge of the area and was brought down unceremoniously but the resulting free kick was high wide and not very handsome. Andover then substituted Tom Pattison for Jake Watson and in the 76th minute Adam Pattison followed up a shot and pushed the ball into the net to give Andover a 5th goal Further substitutions followed for Andover and a second Millbrook player was sent off in the 89th minute after picking up a second yellow card. Andover then cruised through the last few minutes against nine men. It should be pointed out though that Millbrook were not an aggressive and overly physical side, the sending offs though were unfortunate but justified.

So a convincing 5-0 victory which made it 12 goals against 1 for the season's two games against Millbrook which hopefully sets Andover off on the right course for the remaining ten games of the season and the push to make the play offs. The next game at Portway is on Tuesday evening at 7.30 in a rearranged fixture against Verwood Town.