○Liss Athletic3–4Andover Town

Another new venue for Town today for the trip to Liss who were actually in the Wessex league until a few years ago. A warm and sunny autumn afternoon on a very attractive tree-lined pitch which looked to have an excellent playing surface. Town wore their second all white strip since Liss play in all blue.

Andover came straight out of the traps and had a dream start when in the 5th minute Luke Holden was tripped in the area and the referee immediately pointed to the spot. Ryan Morgans stepped up and cleanly dispatched the penalty into the bottom right corner to open the scoring at 1-0. Town forced two corners in quick succession and were awarded a second penalty in the 15th minute following an obvious hand ball by the Liss defender. Up stepped Ryan Morgans and again slid home the penalty into the bottom left corner to make the score 2-0. At this stage Andover were playing as well as they have done all season and went even further ahead in the 20th minute when a fierce shot from Ryan Morgans gave him an early hat-trick to make the score 3-0 and it’s hard to remember a quicker hat-trick in Town’s history. To be fair to Liss there had only been 3 chances which resulted in 3 goals.

Liss certainly had not thrown in the towel at this stage and their pressure paid off in the 36th minute when a break down the right fashioned a chance which the striker converted to make the score 3-1. The first half concluded with Liss getting more and more into the game and the 2 goal deficit at half time was not fazing them. Half time score 3-1 to the visitors.

Still perfect playing conditions with bright sunshine as the second half started. Malachi Johnson had a terrific chance to widen the gap when in the 50th minute he broke through and fired just wide from 20 yards out. But Liss grew more and more confident and were now in control as the hour mark approached. Andover’s early dominance had disappeared by this stage and it was no real surprise when in the 65th minute careless defending let Liss in again and score easily to make it 3-2. And then a hectic period followed when Liss definitely were on top and looked like scoring again. So it was a relief when in the 80th minute Ryan Morgans found space and slid the ball home to make the score 4-2 which with his 4 goal haul spoke volumes to his skill and effort during the game. You would think that the game was over at this stage, far from it, and a nerve shredding moment came in the 87th minute when Liss scored again to make the score 4-3. Surely Andover couldn’t lose after leading 3-0 after 15 minutes in the first half but had it not been for two spectacular serves by keeper Chris Redshaw in the very last minute they would certainly have drawn.

The match finished 4-3 to Andover, a game full of excitement with an extremely tense finish which was illuminated by Ryan Morgans 4 goals.

The next match is on Friday September 20th kick off 8pm away to top four Hedge End Rangers.