Andover Town1–10○AFC Stoneham

In the extreme heat of this August afternoon Andover Town found AFC Stoneham far too much to handle. There were some individual remarkable performances however the majority of the opponent’s goals were borne from specific errors and it appeared every mistake was going to be punished.

The game started perfectly for the home side when in the 4th minute Solomon Mawo scored from a pass from defence to find him unmarked. The finish was second to none and presented the home crowd with an exciting start to the league season. Stoneham came back almost straight away and only minutes after the goal Kieran McHardy made his first save of the match. The away side had apparently been only warming up for the first few minutes and their first goal came only 5 minutes after the opener. Will Harris put away a shot which was remarkably similar in build up to Andover’s. As the half progressed Mawo continued to be well placed, unfortunately this led to being offside a number of times. There could have been a second for the home side when Brendan Holmes passed to Mawo in a promising position, however the flagged was raised and the move was curtailed. Nathan Lunness was called upon several times to clear from close to the goal line. Overall he had a impressive game with a number of instances where he was called upon to act in a pressure situation. Stoneham went ahead approximately half way through the first half when an uncharacteristically poor goal kick resulted in Sergio Caballero lobbing the ball above the head of McHardy. Only minutes later McHardy prevented another when Tom Hogan really should have scored from the position he was in. The next goal for Stoneham came when Will Harris slammed the ball home across the goal form one post to the other at waist height. Mawo continued to play a well placed game and just before half time the crowd thought he had scored the home sides second but the ball just skimmed across the front of the goal.

Half time Andover Town 1-3 AFC Stoneham

As soon as the second half started Stoneham began their onslaught. Owen Trapnell headed off the line after the away side forwards had already made an attempt which McHardy had saved. Both Lunness and Jake Watson were under constant attack and the score against Andover could have progressed more quickly and have been greater if it hadn’t been for a number of inspired clearances. Unfortunately Stoneham quickened up the pace as the stop clock reached an hour. Then in a six minute spell the away side put four goals into the home sides goal. The first by Hogan then Joe Sutherland achieved a hat trick with 2 open play goals and a penalty awarded in the 67th minute. Harris was to notch up another two goals to his tally, the first due to some well placed loitering around the far goal post and a pass to him which took everyone by surprise except for him. The other resulted after the Andover fans thought he should have been flagged for off side. The last goal came in the final minutes of play which took the defeat to double figures much to the dismay of the crowd. It was difficult conditions for the new Andover Team to play in and hopefully they will learn from the experiences of the day come back stronger for their next game.

(This was Andover Town's biggest defeat)