ANDOVER Lions progressed into round three of the Hampshire Intermediate Cup with a 1 -0 victory away to Cosham Park Rangers from the Portsmouth Premier Division on Saturday to earn a home tie against Alton Town Reserves.

Josh Hind returned to the starting line up after missing the home defeat to Upham and George Baxter continued his run in goal with his brother Sam recovering from a broken finger.

The Lions had the best of the opening exchanges and Dan Reynolds went close to opening the scoring on eight minutes when breaking through but his effort was saved by the keeper’s legs.

Cosham, however, showed that the Lions needed to be on their guard and a 25-yard effort from the hosts on the quarter hour mark was narrowly over the bar.

John Robb responded for Andover with a header from a corner that went wide and Reynolds had another effort that was cleared off the line with the keeper beaten by a neat flick from last season’s top scorer.

Nick Dadds also headed wide from a dead ball move but on the stroke of half-time he set up Tom Gilbert to tap home from just a yard out after Reynolds’s long throw caused confusion in the Cosham defence. This proved to be the last kick of the half and Lions went in to the break well worth their goal advantage.

The second half started with Baxter making a smart save and Ryan Facey responding with a 30- yard effort that went wide. Reynolds had the best chances of the half, heading wide from a Gilbert corner and then shooting at the keeper when well placed before the match petered out.

Chris Paris was naturally pleased to be in the draw but not overly impressed by the quality of the match he had witnessed. “We are in the next round and have kept a clean sheet but it wasn’t the best game to watch,” he said.

“We never really looked like conceding but being just one goal to the good meant that we were living on our nerves a little.

“We had chances to put some daylight between us but couldn’t take them and that could have proved costly. We’re grateful that there was no late equaliser as nobody could have taken another half hour of that.”

Tomorrow the Lions will be looking to build on the result when they travel to bottom of the table Michelmersh and Timsbury in the league, kick-off 2pm.