Honours even as Mens 2's scrap out draw in opening game of the season

Andover got off to a good start with what was a make shift defence due to player availability with Charlie latter marshalling the line very well with a vast improvement on the previous week with the number of successful transfers. Andover played a higher line which reduced the amount of space in the midfield for the opposition .

Andover had a lot of the early chances but it was not until they were awarded a short corner that Max Souter stepped up to hit ball home giving the away side the lead. The hockey was good but Andover lacked a bit of composer at times but the effort could not be faulted by the 11 men. They took their one nil lead into half time with Will Hemming making some important saves in the first half to keep them in the game. Which included the scything down of one of the Southampton attackers.

Half time Guy gave his normal team talk. lucky nobody has been put on suicide watch but Russ Hemming now knows how lucky he was today to grace field with such legend and he can tick this off is hockey bucket list now just needs to do an aerial in open match play just like Ben Goacher.

Team talk over second half started well again still a little bit scrappy with a few loose passes but Andover went close again with Dave Eastbrook going one on one with their keeper and firing wide. Andover had a couple more chances to kill the game off but tired legs and the lack of subs started to take its toll with Southampton starting to get more and more of the ball and create their own chances. Andover road their luck at times with some scrappy defending but kept their noses in front. With about 10 minutes to go Andover were awarded another short corner which they thought they had scored but the shot was deemed to be high above the back board.

Andover held on but now the young Southampton side were pressing more and more and in the final 30 seconds of the match they managed to score a very scrappy goal which ended up being lobbed into the top corner of the Andover goal much to the amazement of the attacking player.

Well done today guys .Big thanks to the players who stepped in today to make the game possible and well done to anyone I haven't mentioned it nice to see some of training routines put into practise on the pitch which included the press today much better.