A TEN man Andover Town held on to a dramatic 1-1 draw at Horndean, despite having to play the last 12 minutes without goalkeeper Lloyd Thomas.

The Town stopper was given his marching orders after bringing down Connor Duffin as the forward charged towards the penalty area with five minutes of normal time remaining.

McCaulie Stubbs donned the goalkeeper jersey and was forced to remain between the sticks for the remainder of the half and a further seven added minutes as Town nervously secured a hard-fought draw at the Five Heads ground.

Manager Glenn Burnett made on change to the team that suffered an unfortunate 2-1 defeat to promotion changing Blackfield and Langley last weekend.

Lewis Gilbert replaced Dylan Knight as he made his first start for Town after serving a three match suspension.

Andover were quickest out of the blocks and scored the opener after ten minutes through Adam Grange.

Horndean's goalkeeper Tom Price made a hash of a floated Gilbert free-kick and Grange was on hand to smartly tap the loose ball over the line to give Town an early lead.

The hosts looked continuously dangerous on the break and had chances to level in the first half, but were wasteful in front of goal.

At the other end, Price redeemed himself for his earlier mistake, twice denying Reece Rusher with two good saves.

Price again denied Andover a second, this timekeeping out Zac Glasspool after he was slid in by Grange.

Rob Tambling had Horndean's best chance to equalise in the first half, when he opened up a shot just past the half hour mark.

However he was denied by a sublime block by forward Shane Lock.

Horndean made two changes at the start of the second half and within ten minutes of the restart had equalised.

Andover failed to deal with as corner leading to a goalmouth scramble, which ended when Ian Humble netted from close range.

From then on most of the action was confined to the Andover half, but despite their dominance the home side were unable to overcome an excellent defensive play by Andover.

Towards the closing stages Town worked their way back into the game until with four minutes of normal time left a long ball out of the Horndean area caught them off-guard.

Duffin broke clear and with only Thomas to beat was brought down just outside the area.

Thomas received a straight red, prompting Burnett to bring on Stubbs as a make-shift stopper.

The resultant free kick came to nothing, but there were a few anxious moments for the travelling Town fans as they endured a nail-biting seven minutes of added time.

However the Andover defence held out to secure a well-earned draw, which consolidates their current mid-table position.

Andover return to the Portway this weekend for a 3pm game with Newport (IOW).

A win would move Town within a point of their 10th placed opponents.