ANDOVER Town continued their recent surge up the Wessex League Premier table with a closely contested 3-2 win over Newport (IoW) on Saturday.

The Portway side cruised into a 3-0 lead in the first half thanks to a deflected own goal and strikes from Zach Glasspool and Adam Grange.

But the hosts made life unnecessarily difficult for themselves, nearly surrendering their three goal advantage to a plucky Port side.

Town boss Glenn Burnett made two changes from the side that drew with Horndean.

Reece Rusher and Shane Lock dropped to the bench to be replaced by Craig Blakeman and Alex Dockree, who was making his 100th league appearance for the club.

Hosts Andover showed their intent from the start when an early shot from Glasspool forced a save from Newport's Gary Streeter.

However Glasspool was not to be denied on 9 minutes when he burst through the visitor's defence and slotted into the bottom corner.

Grange was giving the visitors defence a torrid time and proved a constant threat down the right hand side.

The winger's persistence paid off when he doubled Town's lead with a shot outside the box, which hit the right-hand post on its way in.

With just under twenty minutes gone Grange again went past a defender and his cross was deflected into the net by Newport’s Liam Newbould to extend the home side's lead.

Andover continued to dominate the first half and looked set to take a comfortable 3-0 lead into the break.

But with five minutes to play, Ross Gregory's tackle on Liam Triggs in the town penalty area gifted Newport a penalty, which was duly converted by Connor Kelly.

McCaulie Stubbs replaced Jordan Brackstone at the start of the second half, which began much in Andover's favour.

Glasspool had a good opportunity to double his tally, but his header narrowly cleared the crossbar.

Grange and Dockree both shot narrowly wide as Andover pushed for a fourth, while Carlo Santoro proved a handful down the left hand side.

With the game still at 3-1, plucky Newport began to build in confidence.

The visitors almost reduced Andover’s lead with a well hit shot from Lewis Wright that drifted narrowly wide.

The Port finally got their reward on 84 minutes when substitute Josh Maloney fired home to give his side a glimmer of hope of snatching a point.

However Town comfortably held out for the win, which moves them up to 12th in the league.

Andover host relegation threatened Fawley on Saturday before travelling to 18th place Bournemouth on Tuesday night.