Andover Town 2–5 United Services Portsmouth

This afternoon saw Andover Town face United Services Portsmouth in the Extra Preliminary round of the FA Cup at the ground of AFC Portchester. The score does not reflect the game as a whole, as at times Andover were the better team and their performance was a positive step change from the league match last week. Only a 15 minute period of lapses was between the Town and a far more successful outcome.

Andover started strong with Solomon Mawo the first to demonstrate his talent as in the second minute he was through heading towards goal when he was brought down, fairly but forcefully just outside the penalty area. However US Portsmouth were also able to attack early on in the game and Sam Mills was called upon to both force the ball over for a corner kick and then defend the goal again as the pseudo home-side could only header the ball over the crossbar. The same crossbar was rattled in its fixing only minutes afterwards as Harry Potter nearly gave his side an early lead. Shortly afterwards Mark Cotton had a shot, which at first looked like it had hit the side netting, but unfortunately resulted in Kieran McHardy having to retrieve the ball from inside his goal. The next 20 minutes of play all belonged to Andover. in one attempt Josh Bertie took a strike which seemed to take for ages to reach the goal as the away fans held their breadth to see if it would dip under the crossbar. Unfortunately it didn’t, however later in the game a similar shot did which delighted the faithful fans. Only minutes later Bertie had a another attempt, this time hitting the goal post which deflected back into play only for the waiting Joe Hunt to put it to safety. Bertie and Mawo once again turned up the heat on Portsmouth’s defence and put a move together to give Jake Watson his first try on goal. Hunt was able to defend the goal effectively this time, however, it was his mistake that finally gave Andover the chance to score their first. A relatively simple looking cross to defend was not held by Hunt and the ball came back out into play where Josh Bertie was ready to punish the error and for Andover to receive reward for their play up to that time. The remainder of the first half played out as an even match with both sides creating chances.

Half time US Portsmouth 1 - 1 Andover Town

In the first few minutes of the second half Andover had two more chances one which was cautiously saved by Hunt and another which hit the cross bar. Then in a period of less than 15 minutes Andover conceived four goals. The first was a counter attack from the early Town chances. Shortly after making a fantastic save from close range McHardy was then beaten by Michael Dark as the save had not been cleared effectively. US Portsmouth’s 3rd goal was unspectacular, it was a front of goal scram following a corner kick which was eventually put in by Callum Glen. Goals four and five came very quickly, Dark got his second from a pass in from Cotton and another run and pass by the number 11 gave Potter his opportunity. Andover failed to stop trying and Mark McAuley, Powell Ihunan-ya and Bertie continued to challenge the Portsmouth defence and keeper. If you had only started watching the play at this time it would not have been obvious that one of the teams was four ahead, as the game was being played like a cup game that either side could win. Then just before the final whistle, Josh Bertie scored the goal he threatened with in the first half. This time the ball fell nicely into the top corner giving Andover players and supporters something to celebrate. Even though Andover didn’t manage to get the win or replay they will be financially better for having played in this round. The play was a great improvement on the match last week and if the team manage to keep up this rate of progress the next meeting of these two teams is likely to result in a vastly different outcome.