On a cold October evening and comments being spoken, written and whispered around the Alton ground since last Saturday about the team’s performance and asking me to do something about it, that’s what was delivered this evening.

Some playing personnel changes and a new formation was delivered to the crying crowd. Into the side came Top Goal scorer for the club Danny Gray, the talented midfield player Tony Lumb and Sean Prothero defender returned to the side after helping the reserves out at the weekend.

The instruction to the team was to start at a high tempo and keep the ball moving whilst taking the attack to the opposition; this certainly happened with the ball fizzing around and although some mistakes were happening the brewers looked lively in the opening period. Andover played more of the direct approach and on a couple of occasions open up the breweries defence and had several opportunities to open the scoring. It was on the half hour though that the visitors took the lead when a cross from the left side saw Dan Hill miss his punch which fell nicely to their No 9 who slotted the ball home. The breweries never stop working and just before half time Lumb picked the ball up in the middle of the park and played a delightful 30 Yards pass out to Corbett on the right side who sent in a low cross which beat the keeper and found Danny Gray who slotted the ball home to send the brewers in at Half time 1 – 1.

In the second half again Alton started brightly and our visitors faded which allowed the brewers to take full command of the game, Lumb who was playing outstandingly well in the middle of the park was the key man gathering the ball and playing it out wide which the Andover defence could not match him. Alton then had several chances from Gray, Corbett & Ferris who all could not convert their chances. With 30 minutes to go Lumb who had done his job for the night was replaced by the pacey Simba who caused the Andover Defence more problems with his pace and skill however it was on 80 minutes of the game when a clearance fell to John Gray some 30 Yards from goal who struck a sweet volley at some pace that hit the Andover defender on the line as he could not get out the way (would have been goal of the season if it had gone in). Then with 3 minutes left on the clock a ball fired around the Andover penalty area which was half cleared and returned back into the box by Corbett which fell to Simba who neatly flicked the ball over the Andover Keeper and sent Alton into the 3 round of the League cup.

A much better performance and committed effort from the lads tonight and I am hoping that we can take this performance, work on it and use it in our next league game with Winchester on Saturday.

Steve Lynch
First Team Manager