Baffins Milton Rovers 1–3 Andover Town

Andover Town won through to the second qualifying round of the FA Vase to set up a mouth watering tie against neighbours, Andover New Street.

Town travelled to Portsmouth to face a Baffin’s side who have made an unbeaten start to the season to sit within the top 5 of the Wessex Premier league whilst Andover have started to come into a bit of form after a stuttering start to the season. Andover made a number of changes to the starting XI who comprehensively beat Millbrook the previous week. Nathan Primus came in for Owen Trapnell whilst Waledin Ahmed started in place of the absent Luke Adams.

The game started at a frantic pace and after barely 9 minutes, Town found themselves in front. Brendan Holmes winning the ball in midfield and playing in Josh Bertie who cut in on his left foot and curled his shot past the keeper to recorded his tenth of the season and 50th Andover goal. Baffin’s looked to respond but rarely troubled Andover. A few half chances blocked by strong defending. However, after the half an hour mark, Andover failed to clear a corner and the home side bundled home an equaliser. The next 10 minutes saw Baffin’s assert pressure and had several chances to take the lead but excellent last ditch defending by Connor Cullingford and a number of top saves from Jordan Brooks kept the score line level. As the game approached half time and with the visiting support hoping the referee blew his whistle for the interval, Josh Bertie found himself a few yards out after Baffins couldn’t clear a cross and tapped in to put Andover 2-1 up at the break.

Defending the slope in the second half, Andover looked much more comfortable and seemed to grow in confidence as the game wore on. Alfie Moulding led superbly from the back whilst Holmes imposed himself in midfield. After Emans went close and forced a corner, the resulting cross was bundled into the net by Adam Pattison to give Andover a two goal cushion and send the travelling support into raptures. The supporters may have been nervous and preying for the last 20 minutes to go quickly but it was all irrelevant, Town were comfortable. The home sides only chance coming in stoppage time when they hit the post. The referee brought the game to a close moments later setting up the local derby game in two weeks time at the Portway stadium. Ron Bertie’s young side have an excellent mix of those with experience alongside the blooding of numerous college players and the club will hope for a successful season on the back of recent victories.