Trojans II 4, Alton 1

DESPITE a strong performance, Alton had no answer to unbeaten Hampshire 2 league leaders Trojans.

Alton looked far from convincing in the early stages, almost immediately giving away several penalty corners they survived by the skin of their teeth.

They slowly picked up the pace but it was only a matter of time before Trojans took the lead through a penalty corner that slipped past Andy Cooper on the Alton post. And Trojans soon doubled their lead after the visitors failed to clear the ball after a penalty corner.

Trailing by two goals, Alton suddenly woke up and took the game to the home side, with the midfield of James Wilson, Tom Green, Jason Smith and Liam Cave linking up particularly well on several occasions and giving the Trojans defenders something to worry about.

And with the midfield thriving, chances started to come for the forwards, with Sam Juncker and Tom Singleton going close. The best chance of the first half fell to Singleton who couldn’t apply the finish at the back post after excellent work by Pete Harvey.

Rejuvenated Alton began the second half the way they finished the first, with Cave and Green causing problems, but they were left frustrated as the Trojans repelled attack after attack. And they paid the penalty for pushing forward as they were caught on the counter-attack and found themselves 3-0 down.

Things then went from bad to worse for Alton as Scott Reading was shown a yellow card before clinical Trojans added a fourth goal from a free hit.

But Alton never gave up and scored a consolation goal when a penalty corner fell to Harvey who made no mistake.

nOn Saturday, Alton host newly-promoted Trojans thirds.