THE WEEK THAT WAS - MARCH 25
Last Tuesday saw Baffins put up a plucky display against Aldershot Town in the Hampshire Senior Cup, but a Semi Final place wasn’t to be- a penalty shootout defeat after a 1-1 draw after 90 minutes. In the other cup tie that night, Romsey Town’s visit to Tadley Calleva also went to penalties. However in this case a winning one for our member club.
Our League Cup Semi Final involving Fareham Town and Petersfield Town fell by the wayside, they try
again this coming Tuesday.
In the Premier Division, Bemerton felt to only their third league reverse of the season at Moneyfields, so failed to close the gap at the head of the table. Hamble inflicted a heavy defeat on Blackfield & Langley – the Watersiders stay in a relegation spot although with Pagham and Brockenhurst also losing, just six points separate 14th from 19th.
With AFC Portchester not in action, AFC Stoneham closed the gap at the top to four points scoring four at Shaftesbury.
Division One saw Andover New Street collect maximum points with a 4-0 win on the road to go top of the table. With New Milton, Newport and Petersfield all missing out on a game, a 4-0 win at Magna Road saw Hamworthy Recreation jump to fourth place. Downton could only share the spoils at lowly Ash, it looks like a sixth place finish is the best the Robins can hope for, although Fleetlands with games in hand on all those above them may have something to say about that.
At the other end, East Cowes Vics opened a five point gap over the bottom four with a win over fellow strugglers Ringwood Town, who are in real danger of falling into the relegation trap. Just one game on Wednesday, where Sholing perhaps not surprisingly beat Hythe & Dibden to reach the Southampton Senior Cup Final.
The difficult weather conditions continued into the weekend, with two games lost, at Andover Town and Hythe & Dibden. The Fareham game was called off due to Travellers pitching up at Cams Alders, and although they were moved on fairly soon, not without incident where we understand that there was an incident in the ground, but the decision to postpone had already been taken by the League.
Not a great deal of goal action across the remaining 15 games that did get played on the Saturday,
with 45 scored- representing three at each game.
AFC Portchester continued their march towards the title, but it took an own goal in the 80th minute to get them the points, a gate of 298 at The Dell being the biggest there in the League this term.
Another best of the season was at Stoneham Lane second place took on third as promotion rivals AFC Stoneham and Horndean (pictured) attracted 237 through the gate. The ‘deans won 1-0 meaning the gap at the top has opened up to seven points, although Horndean have four in hand on both teams above them. It was also Stoneham’s first defeat at home in the League this season.
The other top gate was at Brockenhurst. 144 saw the Badgers win an important clash with Pagham, that may have been enough to lift them out of the relegation zone, whilst the Lions remain in the danger zone. Another best of five win was at United Services, where Portland hit two in added on time to make it five wins on the trot.
In Division One, there was no change to the top three spots. Andover New Street could only draw at fifth place Petersfield in front of a crowd of just over 300, a score that probably didn’t help either side. New Milton Town though came unstuck at Beatrice Avenue where East Cowes Vics made it four unbeaten winning 1-0. Newport’s game at Andover Town was off due to the weather and Hamworthy Recreation took advantage notching up a 2-0 win over Fleetlands.
The Lederle Lane side have games in hand on all those above them- and if they win all of those and other results go their way they could find themselves in a play-off berth, but at this stage of the season are points in the bag better than games in hand?
Downton also returned to winning ways with a 4-1 win at Ringwood. With Whitchurch United, Amesbury Town and Fleet Spurs all losing there’s no real change in the relegation zone. The latter returned home on the back of the biggest losing margin of the day when Verwood hit five, with five different scorers.
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Article Photo: Robin Caddy
