Andover Town 0 Moneyfields 3.

Town went away from the Portway with nothing to show for their efforts against Moneyfields rueing an early penalty miss and a sending off in the second half, writes Patrick Barlow.

Manager Neil Benson made three changes to the team that started against Totton and Eling, bringing in defenders Ope Aromona and Ryan Inskip to replace Brad Benson and Joe Woodward, and moving Craig Blakeman to the bench in favour of Danny Urry.

Andover had the best chances in the early stages, most notably a penalty decision in the eighth minute, when Alex Dockree’s touch hit the hand of Moneyfield’s defender Russell Rackley but Michael Dixon was denied by keeper Cameron Scott denied Andover.

Town’s early dominance was short lived though, as only three minutes later, Moneyfields strikers Alfie Rutherford and Steve Hutchings went on the counter attack, which ended with Hutchings beating Jake Wellesley-David to give the away side the lead. The league leaders build on it throughout the first half, with Hutchings doubling his and the team’s goal total by heading in from a corner, and three minutes later Jake Morgan got his name on the scoresheet, with a low effort past Wellesley-David.

Andover were able to get back into the game slightly towards the end of the first half, with the best effort being Dixon’s well hit volley, forcing a save out of Scott.

Benson made changes early in the second half, replacing Nic Turpin with Ike Robertson however, Andover had two major setbacks when captain Dockree was taken off having sustained a head injury and then, having made two bookable tackles, Toby McCauley was dismissed in the 65th minute, putting Andover on the back foot once again.

Rutherford hit the post from a header, once again troubling Town’s defence and despite introducing Oliver Yates in an attempt to inject some extra pace into the game they weren’t able to make any more chances.