Andover Town3–1○Fawley AFC

Andover Town opened their new season with a win against a good Fawley side. With new signings making their first competitive appearances. A good size crowd of 148 saw Town make all the running in the first 20 minutes.

Andover opened their account after six minutes after what appeared to be a safe clearance for the visitors. A mix up with their keeper Bruce & a defender saw the ball go loose and Tom Pattison was on hand to take advantage to put Town one up. The home defence coped well with everything that the Fawley attack threw at them and new signing goalkeeper Dease Kerrison’s handling was excellent. Then with quarter of an hour gone Andover’s Josh Hewson breaking through on goal he was upended in the box and the referee had no hesitation in awarding a penalty. Adam Pattison made no mistake putting the home side well in command. Fawley now had to find something to get back into the match but the home defence coped well and the team were playing with much confidence. On twenty minutes, another Fawley attack had broken down and a superb ball out of the Town defence found Adam Pattison free on the right and his excellent run into the opposition box, he found the far corner of the goal out of the reach of keeper Bruce to put Town well in the driving seat. The rest of the half saw Fawley trying to find a way through the well drilled Town defence but to no avail. The home side also looking to increase their commanding lead but keeper Bruce foiled a couple of good chances.

Half time – Andover Town 3-0 Fawley AFC

The second half turned out to be different to the first as Fawley were desperate to get back into the match. With seven minutes of the half gone the visitors got their reward in what was strange circumstances. The ball crossed into Andover’s goal mouth keeper Kerrison didn’t hold the cross and winger Bradley took his chance and struck the ball goalward but a Town defender appeared to clear it off the goal line. Protests from the Fawley players and the referee went to consult his line official and after a brief chat he award the goal (although the line official didn’t flag in the first instance). The visitors now sensed a good chance to get back into the game. However, the home defence held out well. Two good chances did fall to Town one for Josh Bertie but as he ran one on one with keeper Bruce his attempt was poor and the keeper saved easily. Then Michael Donovan broke free but found himself closely pursued on goal but his fine effort was just wide of the goal with Bruce beaten. At the other end keeper Kerrison was called upon to make a couple of good saves to keep Fawley at bay. The game ended on a sour note with two Andover players being sent to the sin bin – apparently for dissent.

At the end of the day Andover Town will be pleased with the three points and will have learnt from this encounter. They now travel to play Alton who had a good 4-1 win away at Downton so, this will be a good test for the team.