Battling Street go down at Love Lane (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Street second best to promotion hopefuls Petersfield

2:45pm Monday 11th March 2013 in Andover By Sports editor Kerry Miller

Petersfield Town 5 Andover New Street 1.

NEW Street went down to a predicatable defeat at promotion-chasing Petersfield Town on Saturday but manager Phil Andrews was far from despondant.

“It was OK and we played well and in truth I was more disappointed on Thursday when we lost to Laverstock.”

That game hinged on a missed penalty which Andrews admitted killed off his side’s challenge but on Saturday it was a different picture. New Street had a good shout for a penalty turned down inside two minutes and Dean Smith hit the bar but Will Essai gave the home side the lead on 15 minutes.

Street had other chances with Nic Oliver and Shane Lock busy but just after the break Pete Williams’ excellent solo goal made it 2-0. Callum Coker made it 3-0 before New Street were given a lifeline when Lock’s effort was punched off the line and Nic Oliver knocked in the rebound.

With Matt Davis, Stuart Anderson and Mark Keogh all carrying knocks Petersfield gave the scoreline a lopsided look with late goals from Coker again and Nick Tayler.

“The players should be proud of their performance after Thursday as the work rate was definitely there. “ Looking forward to Saturday’s trip over to leaders Cowes Sports Andrews added: “We will have Tommy Gentleman and Kev Doughty back in the squad and I am giving a debut to U17 keeper Tom Crozier who has been getting rave reviews in the youth side.”