A YOUTHFUL Andover Town side were dumped out of the North Hants Senior Cup after being beaten 5-0 by Southern League side Fleet Town on Wednesday night.

Town boss Neil Benson elected to field just three senior players in his squad, with attention firmly focused on their crucial league game against promotion rivals Blackfield and Langley on Saturday.

Those three players included the likes of back-up goalkeeper Michael Horne and Danilo Cadete.

This meant opportunities for emerging Sparsholt Academy talents Kris Oti, Carlo Santoro and Taylor Austwick.

Meanwhile Fleet, who sit comfortably in mid-table in Division One of the Evo Stik Southern League, played a relatively strong side on their visit to the Portway.

Despite the mismatch, Andover's young side performed well in the first half, going into the break just a goal down after Simba Mlambo opened the scoring in the 24th minute.

Town continued to hold Fleet back after the break but Rob Carr soon doubled Fleet's lead before Josh Francis added a third to give the visitors a commanding lead.

Ben White and Craig Martin both scored late on to complete a comprehensive victory for the Southern League side.

The result sends Andover crashing out of the cup while Fleet move on to a semi-final with Tadley Calleva later this month.

The winner are set to face Whitchurch United, who have already booked their place in the final.

After the match, Andover  Town manager Neil Benson said: "We said before we would play a young side because we wanted to make sure the senior squad are fully prepared for Saturday.

"We put out three seniors and the rest were from our youth side so it was always going to be difficult for them.

"They did really well and were only down 1-0 at half time.

"It gave me a lot of pleasure to give some game time to the youngsters - It's what these competitions should be about."

Meanwhile Benson underlined the importance of Saturday's game away at Blackfield and Langley, knowing a win would pull them within four points of a possible promotion place.

"The Blackfield game on Saturday is unquestionably a massive game.

"With the squad Salisbury have it's unlikely that they will slip up so it's a race now to see who can stay on their coat tails.

"We beat Blackfield at our place 3-2 earlier this season so we will be going there to try and get all three points.

"But Blackfield have a very experienced squad and good players right the way through their squad so it will be challenging to go to their place and get a result."

He added: "This game won't make or break our season.

"We are taking things one game at a time as we have for the last eleven games (unbeaten).

"We have eight games between now and the end of the season and we want to be pushing right to the top."