ANDOVER Town will be looking to end their excellent season with some silverware when on Tuesday night they host AFC Stoneham in the Russell Cotes Cup final at Portway.

The Wessex League Premier Division runners-up will start as favourites, but visiting Stoneham only just missed out on promotion from Division One this season.

Andover missed out on a second cup final when they went down 3-1 to visiting Premier rivals Bemerton in the

Salisbury Hospital Cup semi-final.

Andover beat Bemerton in the final of the same competition a few years ago, but this was always going to be difficult after Luke Dempsey was sent off after 20 minutes.

Due to work commitments Liam Hibberd, Jason Silver and McAulie Stubbs were unavailable, whilst Ben Cook was cup tied. Alex Dockree was amongst the substitutes and his return was warmly welcomed by the Town faithful.

Before the game got underway Alan Mussell presented Zack Glasspool with a memento to acknowledge his achievement in scoring 50 goals for the club.

In the early stages Manny Soetan twice went close for Andover and it took Bemerton almost 15 minutes to put in a shot on target.

With 20 minutes played Dempsey and Bemerton’s Elloit Cross tangled just outside the area and the referee indicated a free-kick.

In the meantime the scuffle continued and Cross fell down inside the area. Contentiously the match official gave Dempsey a straight red and then incredulously signalled a penalty.

Once the inevitable protest died away Jake Rawkins took the spot kick, but justice was served as Luke Cairney saved well at the expense of a corner.

Reece Rusher’s rich vein of recent form was continuing and after Mike Gosney put him clear he cut in from the right but his well struck shot hit the far post.

Connor Cocklin and Michael Hubbard both went narrowly wide as Andover put their opponents under pressure.

However two minutes before the interval, Bemerton put themselves in the driving seat as Jake Burgess fired in with a 25-yard volley.

Five minutes into the second period Bemerton were able to exploit their numerical advantage with a second goal.

This was another long range effort similar to the first but Cross was the scorer on this occasion.

To their credit Andover kept Bemerton on their toes with Gosney and Soetan finding the target if not the net.

Andover finally got themselves back into the game with a goal that is a late contender for goal of the season.

From just inside the opposition half Adam Costello,who with Rusher shared the player of the match award, sent a perfectly flighted cross to Glasspool on the edge of the area.

He chested the ball down into the path of Gosney who drilled an unstoppable shot wide of the goalkeepers reach.That goal had the added significance of being the club’s 600th competitive goal.

The visitor's reply was to use some delaying tactics that the referee failed to clamp down on instead issuing cautions to Gosney and Glasspool for their justifiable protest.

Andover continued to have more of the possession and with extra time available a second goal would have brought them a lifeline.

However it was not to be and five minutes from time Jordon Matthews scored Bemerton’s third to seal Andover’s fate.