Andover Town 0–4 United Services Portsmouth

This was a very disappointing result for Andover Town following their excellent performance against Newport in the previous fixture.Signed from Whitchurch Dean Smith came in for his debut whilst Josh Bertie was amongst the substitutes having prematurely been forced to return early from the Caribbean due to the weather conditions.

The visitors were quick out of the blocks and almost five minutes elapsed before Andover were able to any sort of impression but Lewis Wakeford’s cross was turned away for a corner.Against a far more experienced side Andover continued to struggled to gain a foothold and it was no surprise when Harry Potter gave them the lead after twelve minutes play.The second goal arrived four minutes later and it could be argued that it was a little fortuitous.A free kick from wide on the left appeared to be heading out of play.Kieran McHardy came across to cover but Tom Jeffes managed to head into the net through the narrow gap between goalkeeper and post. Waledin Ahmed was the first to get in a shot on target for the home side but overall Andover’s struggle to impose themselves in the game continued. Andover had a lucky escape when attempting to play out from the back,a pass was under hit to present the visitors with a golden opportunity which they failed to take.However the reprieve was short lived when a second misdirected pass was intercepted by James Franklin who duly punished Andover to score the visitors third goal.

Half time - Andover Town 0-3 U.S.Portsmouth

As the second period got underway United Services continued to dominate and a goalmouth scramble ended with a ricochet off the Andover crossbar. Kieran McHardy made a fine save tipping a forty yard free kick over the bar.However from the resulting corner Jeffes headed in his second of the night to give the Services an unassailable advantage. To their credit Andover kept plugging away but were unable to make an impression on a well organised defence.McHardy excelled with a point blank save whilst the visitors,possibly over confident,missed a couple of sitters.Late in the game Bertie cut in from the right in search of the consolation but his effort sailed over the bar,arguably su mming up Andover’s evening. The Portsmouth side have yet to lose this season and another undefeated side Amesbury Town are next up at the Portway on Saturday.It does not get any easier.