PETERSFIELD beat Trojans comprehensively and probably condemned Hampshire's oldest club to relegation.

Five tries to one and a 33-8 scoreline accurately reflected the match and Petersfield are now comfortably placed in mid-table and within touching distance of local rivals Farnham who lost to London Irish on Saturday.

The home side finally broke the Trojan resistance just before the break.

But the Southampton club had come out of the blocks like a team possessed, albeit given a helping hand by 'Field skipper Derek Eldridge's woeful clearance kick.

His sliced cross-kick bounced nicely for James Pennington to carry forward, and with support from Andy Milton, the former Gosport winger showed all his pace and guile to go over in the corner.

Pennington was wide with the conversion, as he was with a subsequent penalty, but Trojans were looking dangerous and an upset was on the cards if they could keep it up.

Petersfield full-back David Wheeler then punished the visitors, kicking two simple penalties after Hathaway had caught them offside twice in the space of 15 minutes. But Pennington restored Trojans' lead with one of his own.

However, from the restart, lock Graeme Aggar found himself with acres of space to gallop over from 40 metres after scrum-half Alasdair Millar had released him with a quick pass and Simon Poulter had acted as decoy.

The home side had the lead and never looked like relinquishing it. Trojans must have known they were beaten when teenage flanker Ian Palmer landed what could only be described as a team try. Superb interlinking between forwards and backs, fine recycling of the ball at the ruck and maul, and Palmer dived over.

Trojans' double replacement at the interval never really worked. Petersfield lock Charlie Mason and then Scott Chesney, who had an outstanding game at No 8, scored identical tries, again through good recycling at close range, to seal the result.

Dave Holden's score in injury time gave the scoreline a thicker feel. Trojans trudged off the field knowing their fate is now out of their hands – they must rely on other results as well as winning all four of their remaining games.

Petersfield's next league match will be at Farnham on March 1.