ANDOVER Town came to this match still on a high from their dominating victory over Alton three days earlier and the team should be just as proud of performance against the title chasing visiting Romsey as they lost just 1-0.

Having shipped 18 goals in the two previous meetings this was an equal battle with the defeat coming from an anomaly in defence not a mis-match of skills.

Andover fielded the same starting line-up as their Alton win with a strong bench including both Jordan Ragguette and Shaquille Gwengwe.

Within the first minute both goalkeepers had handled the ball with Andover having the best chance as George Higgins forced Charlie Philpott to save with his feet.

Higgins was to have another chance when an Owen Trapnell throw-in found him on the edge of the penalty area and he fired wide.

Another telling Trapnell throw-in found Nic Turpin who tried a semi overhead kick but with no success.

Ben Emans demonstrated a very high work rate and was clearly causing problems on his wing as he outpaced his opponent number.

Romsey number 10, Jack Odam who kept man of the match Trapnell occupied every time the away-side were on the attack.

Odam scored the Romsey winner when he managed to lob a ball over Mark Keogh and Dave Tasker to score.

The rest of the first half did not present with a good opportunity for either side.

Andover started the second half with a renewed vigour. Almost straight after the whistle Turpin had a shot which rebounded out from the underside of the bar to the surprised Higgins.

He was unable to control this unexpected ball and ended up putting it over the bar.

The home-side were looking good on the break but they were unable finish any of them with a goal.

The popular Shaquille Gwengwe was brought on with a new signing William Green with just over an hour of the game gone to injected an new approach to break down the Romsey defence.

As usual, Gwengwe out-run his defenders but struggled to get into a good enough position for him to score one of his spectacular goals.

Green had come on to replace Emans, and although a completely different player to Emans, he slotted straight into the task he was given on the right wing.

Andover had a few good chances in the last quarter of the game, Green nearly scored on his debut and Lunness looked to have placed himself perfectly for a Josh Bertie corner but the move ended without a prize.

Tasker made two incredible saves as the game came to a close. One with full stretch skywards and the other was a left handed lunge just as the game was entering the 90th minute.

This Saturday, Andover are away to Verwood.