Match Report By Hamish Manson.
Hopes were high coming into this match as Andover New Street were 2nd in the Wessex Football League and were only two points behind Petersfield Town whereas Brockenhurst were fighting in the relegation battle down in 17th.
The heavens opened just before kick-off making the pitch absolutely drenched for the entirety of the game. The teams came out ready and raring for the first half which was shown by Andover New Street’s barrage of chances however the Brockenhurst defence held strong led by Steve Walker, nicknamed the Colossus. Clearing the ball half way down the pitch on multiple occasions, Walker definitely deserves his title.
Things were looking good for New Street however, they had the majority of the ball, made decent chances and appeared to have ‘the Badgers’ on the ropes. All that changed when a controversial free kick was awarded just outside the New Street penalty area. The ball was struck with venom as it rattled the woodwork, hit an on rushing New Street defender and fell at the feet of the fortunate Brockenhurst attacker, number 8, Toby Colmer, who had to simply tap it into the net for 1-0. That was the last action for the first half with the whistle going mere seconds later.
Whatever Jamie Coleman, the New Street manager, had said at half time clearly worked as New Street reamerged with a second wind in them and you could tell straight from the off that they were hungry for an equalizer. A lovely ball was played over the top of the Brockenhurst defense minutes after, which new signing Marcel Laptas managed to chase down into the penalty area and coolly slotted the ball under the keeper’s legs.
New Street had gotten back into this game and everyone in the ground knew that this game was not over yet. New Street kept possession after that and played around with it but the attacking spark seemed to be gone. Neither team’s defence seemed to want to concede the next goal but in one of Brockenhurst’s next attacks, disaster struck. The pacey 16 year old Freddie Beale dashed past New Street’s left back and was quickly one on one with the goalkeeper. Cleverly, the number 10 managed to draw New Street’s keeper all the way to his near post and smashed it across goal and into the opposite side of the net. This 2-1 score line clearly stunned New Street because straight from the restart ‘the Street’ lost possession in the same midfield area and a clever ball combined with a low driven shot got Conner Bent his first goal of the match and Brockenhurst’s third.
Try as they might, New Street just could not snatch one back and Brockenhurst’s time wasting tactics just stalled them long enough to grab the win. Final score, Andover New Street 1, Brockenhurst FC 3.
