A POTENTIAL banana skin match ended with a good result and an excellent performance for Andover Men's Hockey side.

Andover needed the win and Salisbury, in their match against Haslemere, to lose to guarantee a play-off spot for promotion and that’s exactly what they got.

Andover took the lead in five minutes when George Allmark charged into the D only to see his shot rebound back off the inside of the post, but Sam Cowley was on hand to tap in.

Against the run of play Weymouth equalised but shortly after it was Allmark again taking another close range shot and this time the keeper parried to Cowley and once again he tapped into the empty net.

Cowley completed his hat-trick minutes later finishing well from a short corner and he got his fourth when he picked up the deflection from his own shot then rounded the keeper to slot home.

Weymouth improved after the break and Andover found themselves under more pressure than they were expecting to be.

A glut of bad challenges led to several short corners but keeper Doug Strickland made several good stops and a range of desperate tackles were made but eventually they conceded a second goal.

Andover could have lost control after that but there was a good reaction to the situation and with Allmark wondering what he had to do to score his shot hit a foot on the line and Cowley stepped up again to score the penalty flick to make his and Andover’s total to five.

Andover have two matches remaining and are assured of at least a play-off spot, but if Haslemere slip up in either of their two remaining matches then two wins could see Andover win the league.