Neil Benson was pleased with the outcome after a busy few days which saw three games in five days without several of the squad.

“The side is beginning to resemble the finished article and Lewis played 75 minutes on Monday although he maybe shoudn’t have.

‘Obviously it was very disapppointing to lose our home record on Saturday as we should have got something from the game. Newport scored a good winner but we had four good chances and we can’t afford that at this level.”

“The pitch on Saturday was a little long but was cut on Sunday and the rain made it zippy which suited our style and we welcomed a few back.”

Looking to what will be another couple of tough games Benson added: “We value all the squad highly and on Saturday we go to Petersfield again in what is a very open league. We shall look at the table after ten games but at the moment just Blackfield and Langly and Whitchurch United are undefeated.”

Next Tuesday Andover Town welcome Winchester City to the Portway for what is a juicy derby which will bring out the football public once again as they did when Town played the Lions a few months ago.