ANDOVER Town were unable to make it four league wins on the bounce as they lost their basement battle at Ringwood 2-1.

The visitors gave a debut to Joao Paivia whilst the remainder of the defence were reorganised due to the absence of Mark Keogh and Dean Smith.

In the first few minutes Andover made two defensive mistakes early which saw goalkeeper Kieran McHardy save them.

However, he was unable to deny Ben Harris who gave the home side the lead after five minutes.

Andover seemed to struggle at the beginning of the game with possession in midfield which left the home team with gaps through which they tested the back line-up.

After 15 minutes Andover began to stretch their legs and Lewis Wakeford started to get the measure of his defenders and cause them concern down his wing.

A pass from Brendan Holmes gave Wakeford an opportunity to demonstrate his skills going past two defenders, before finding Liam Callaghan, who was unfortunately deemed to be off-side.

Not long afterwards Andover won a free-kick just outside of the penalty area. Shaquille Gwengwe took the shot which beat the wall and hit the underside of the crossbar.

The ball deflected out to Holmes who unfortunately fired over.

Only a matter of seconds later Nickoy Pinnock picked up the ball at the halfway line, ran at the opposing midfield and passed the ball to Callaghan.

He found Gwengwe who placed the ball in the back of the net like a magnet attracted to iron.

McHardy then save header from Jordan Coleman and then a Ringwood free-kick flashed across the penalty area.

After the break Andover’s Owen Trapnell tested the Ringwood goalkeeper Luke Silcox and only minutes later he was clearing a ball off his own goal line.

Andover continued to create chances and Ringwood also tested McHardy.

Pinnock fired wide from a corner an then Trapnell tried a short from distance curled just wide.

Almost immediately Ringwood had another attempt at beating McHardy which was stopped but the deflected ball came to Manley had too much space and time and scored the winner with just two minutes left.

Next up for Andover is a trip to league leaders Hythe and Dibden.