HOLDERS Andover New Street kept alive their hopes of a cup double as they narrowly won 1-0 at Andover Town.

New Street retained the North Hants Senior Cup earlier this season and their win over Town sets up a return to the Portway Stadium on Wednesday April 24 against Andover New Street Swifts.

The semi-final victory softened the blow of relegation.

The early play was confined very much to midfield. A New Street corner led to a bout of head tennis in the area before the ball was cleared and a long through ball from Josh Bertie saw visiting goalkeeper George Baxter leave his area to deny Shaquille Gwengwe.

The first substitution of the evening saw Callum Sweeney come on for Street after an injury to Jamie Coleman, before the first real shot of the game saw Zach Hine denied.

Street came forward again and scored the only goal after 28 minutes though they needed help from the home side to do so. A back pass was badly under hit and the predatory Shane Lock beat David Tasker to the ball and gleefully fired in to the unguarded net.

Sweeney gave the ball away but recovered his ground to make a saving tackle and a scrappy game continued with Bertie blazing a free-kick over the bar.

The home side started the second half with greater urgency with Jordan Raguette inches too high and another cross, this time from Gary Thorne, again finding no blue shirts in the danger area.

At the other end two home defenders almost fatally left a through ball to each other but Kylan Lewis’s shot was deflected for a corner.

Baxter hung on to a Bertie free-kick at the second attempt before Matt Scott, a tower in the visiting defence all evening, sent Hine clear but his lob over the advancing Tasker went the wrong side of the post.

The game reached the final minutes without either side looking likely to add to the scoreline.

One of the Andover subs Nathan Lunness, managed to collect two cautions for dissent, over matters that did not involve him in the space of five minutes.

He was probably the only player on the evening who left the field and did not come back on again apart from the injured Coleman due to the rolling subs.

This was Andover Town’s last game, while New Street have a league game on Saturday at Baffins Milton Rovers, before they look ahead to the final.