Andover Town3–2○Romsey Town

Romsey Town were the visitors to Portway in the Test Valley derby which has always been a closely fought encounter between the two teams both currently lying in mid-table. Andover were desperately anxious to end a 5 match run without a victory and at kick-off the Mayor of Test Valley Councillor Alan Dowden greeted the two teams. Josh Bertie and Matty Morris were the two strike partners who were hoping to find the net this afternoon.

With one of the quickest goals of the season Ben Emans fired in after 2 minutes to give Andover a great start. Both teams then played with spirit with Romsey defending stoutly whenever Town attacked and the game progressed at a fast pace. In the 20th minute Brendan Holmes was tripped right on the edge of the penalty area, Bertie took a low free kick which the opposition keeper saved well to stop the ball heading into the net. In the 31st minute proven striker Josh Bertie scored the second impressively with a well placed drive high into the net. At this stage Andover were looking comfortably in control and half time arrived with the score at 2-0.

Romsey came out for the second half looking determined to score, maybe after stern words in the dressing room at half time. And pretty soon their efforts paid off when a clumsy challenge by Jordan Smith resulted in a penalty in the 55th minute which Romsey striker and captain Odam easily converted to make the sore 2-1. So Andover had to manage the rest of the half defending resolutely, controlling the midfield and looking to fashion a scoring chance whenever one came along. And indeed a chance came in the 79th minute when Josh Bertie cleverly scored with a free kick from the edge of the area which just squeezed in the near post to make the score 3-1. Hopefully this would be the end of the scoring but this was not to be when Romsey’s number 9 Hawes pulled a goal back in the 85th minute to make the score 3-2. Thus providing a very tense finish with the opposition getting overly excited which resulted in two red cards in the final few minutes. Firstly Bertie was cynically hacked down by Hancock and then bizarrely one of the Romsey players who had been substituted threw the ball from the dugout in the direction of the referee. This was not an overly physical game and the two sending offs did not reflect the overall play and the competitiveness displayed throughout the match.

So the score ended at 3-2 and Andover breathed a sigh of relief as they finally picked up a victory. Next match on Saturday March 11th when Town travel to Ringwood Town kick-off 3.00pm