Andover Town slip up at Horndean

Andover will hope to bounce back to winning ways on Tuesday night, when Team Solent visit Portway.

As the season draws to a conclusion, Town have found that winning has become more difficult and the last few league points required to guarantee them promotion position are proving to be a challenge.

This game resulted in the away team scoring two exquisite goals, however they were reduced to ten men early in the first half and throughout the match the loss was evident in their inability to prevent the home side scoring more.

As usual this season Andover were able to field a strong squad for an away game.

Immanuel Soetan was back in the team following injury and McAulie Stubbs made the starting 11 again as he had against Bashley in Andover’s last match.

The visitors started well, in the first few minutes Jason Silver won a corner, which was taken by Mike Gosney.

It was a good cross which found Adam Costello who executed a fancy flick back which only just missed reaching a player in blue for a certain goal.

Very shortly afterwards a good ball in from Michael Hubbard forced Horndean to give away another corner.

Once again Gosney took the corner and Luke Dempsey had a couple of attempts, to put his side ahead, but it was not to be.

Luke Cairney was then called upon on a number of occasions to produce impressive saves in difficult situations.

The first of which was within the first 10 minutes when a free-kick just outside the area was taken by Liam Kyle.

Not only did Cairney need to stop the direct kick he was also required to reposition as the clearance only travelled as far as Liam Kimber who did not hesitate to fire another on target.

In the 10th minute Joe Wright made a tackle on the Horndean captain Ash Howes.

Immediately the home team players were protesting the validity of the challenge.

A fracas followed for some minutes, the end of which resulted in Wright being sent off with a straight red card.

However, Andover’s professional spirit prevailed and within a minute of the sending off Zach Glasspool scored a goal that never looked like happening.

He picked up the ball on the far wing and in a sole manoeuvre fended off at least three defenders to give himself a shot on goal.

The ball was deflected but still found its way to the back of the net.

This was a great response to going down to 10 men and truly a one-of-a-kind goal.

Unfortunately, the loss of a player soon began to show. Horndean were able to use the gap in the Andover defence to work themselves into dangerous positions on a number of occasions. Dempsey had a particularly admirable game chasing down and fending off the home team forwards.

On the rare occasions the Andover defence were beaten Cairney produced some of his finest saves this season.

During this mid-half spell Horndean’s Benny Reed forced Cairney into one particular breath-taking stop when he launched a shot from the edge of the penalty box.

Andover had to use their forwards in defending positions to protect their goal from attack. This left only Glasspool up front to deal with any breakaway chances when the wingers were able to achieve a viable cross.

In this period of play the inevitable happened. Horndean were able to exploit the lack of a defender and Howes got a well-deserved equaliser.

Horndean continued to attack for the remainder of the first half. Just before the break a free-kick taken by Howes clearly followed a well rehearsed piece of set play.

As the kick was taken a forward appear from behind the wall and received the ball unchallenged. Fortunately, for Andover he was unable to control it and put it over for a goal kick.

Only a minute later, Gosney had an equally good chance from a free-kick at the other end.

The shot skimmed across the goal with Dempsey waiting eagerly to make his mark.

Andover returned from half time with a flying start.

Not 20 seconds into this half Silver had a shot on goal and only a couple of minutes later Gosney forced, the ex-Andover goal keeper Lloyd Thomas, into a flying save from one of his special free kicks.

However it wasn’t long before Horndean were putting on the pressure again.

Both Sam Hookey and Howes had good attempts with headers, again Cairney denied them.

The home side did not have all the play however as Soetan showed his speed and flare in one chance which only failed when he was just unable to beat a fourth defender.

The constant pressure eventually penetrated the Andover defence again when Reed scored Horndean’s second with a shot out of nowhere.

The following five minutes saw the home side continue to make life difficult for Andover and once again they were able to overcome the normally unrelenting Town defence, when Kimber scored from an easy opportunity to make it 3-1.

Shortly after, Andover made a double substitution, with clearly only one aim, to score goals, as Reece Rusher and Harrison Gilkes replaced Hibberd and Soetan.

Andover fans all know that Rusher has the ability to dramatically impact the play with his speed and skill.

This time his mark on the game came from a set piece traditionally associated with Gosney, a free-kick.

Rusher stepped up to take the shot as the rest of the team positioned themselves to pounce if there were to be a rebound or deflection.

The kick was taken and from the stand it could be seen straight away that it was on target. Glasspool intuitively jumped over the incoming shot to avoid an unwanted defection and Dempsey was in attendance to make sure of the goal.

The goal seemed to change the ambiance of the game and suddenly it felt like a cup tie.

The away side chased everything in an attempt to salvage a point from the game.

The last 15minutes were frenetic compared to the rest of the match, and an equaliser seemed a real possibility.

However, time eventually ran out for Andover and they received no points reward for their efforts during the afternoon.

Nevertheless the skills shown to score both goals should be applauded and their impressiveness not lost in the overall headline of the defeat.