BLACKFIELD & Langley 3, ALRESFORD TN 2

ALRESFORD lost out by the odd goal in five after a decent display against Blackfield & Langley, currently second in the Wessex Premier League.

For a variety of reasons, the Magpies were missing all three of the players who had made winning debuts against Horndean the previous week. They gave a debut to midfielder Aaron Blaxall, newly signed from Fleet Town, while Carl Steadman, returning to Alresford after a spell with AFC Stoneham, was on the bench.

Alresford probed in promising style early on, but when Blackfield got hold of the ball they scored almost immediately. A diagonal left-wing cross found Sam Lanahan unmarked on the six-yard line and he headed past Mike Weatherall with ease.

Thereafter in this half, the Watersiders dominated territorially, but failed to breach a stubborn Alresford rearguard, despite some enterprising play from Lanahan and man-of-the-match Jake Rowley.

Just before half-time, the Magpies had a fine chance to equalise when Tom Donaldson surged through from midfield and found John Howard lurking on the right side of the box. Howard aimed for the bottom left corner, but Chad Collins dived to make a fine fingertip save.

The game sprang to life straight after the break. Alresford brought on Cliff Walters to play up front, while Howard went in goal to replace hamstring victim Weatherall.

And Walters scored his first Magpies goal on 47 minutes with a deft near-post header from Donaldson’s free-kick.

But Alresford could only maintain parity for 30 seconds. The Watersiders went straight down the field and Lanahan scored from a position the entire Alresford team and many of the spectators were convinced was offside.

That threatened to knock the stuffing out of the visitors and it was no real surprise when, on 54 minutes, Rico Wilson skipped past his marker and fired low past Howard from a tight angle to make it 3-1.

The Magpies fought on and pulled it back to 3-2 on 75 minutes through Bill Puckett, who swivelled to fire into the bottom left corner following a punt forward by substitute Ben Thomson.

Alresford almost snatched a late point as the hard-working Blaxall set up Donaldson for a shot which Collins did well to parry.