Alton Town 1, Andover Town 0

Alton returned to winning ways and stayed firmly in the promotion picture with a battling win at a chilly Enclosure.

It was a game between two well-matched sides that on the day posed little threat in front of goal, although the home side did look the more dangerous and overall deserved their win.

Andover have greatly improved defensively since the start of the season but goalscoring remains a problem, and Justin Courtnage in the home goal had a relatively untroubled afternoon.

The opening minutes were even and played out largely in the middle of the field before the home side enjoyed a spell of possession.

George Bowerman raced into the penalty area but was well tackled by an Andover defender, a Matt Benham free kick was wasted on the corner of the area, and two corners in quick succession came to nothing, the second being well claimed by Dave Tasker in the Andover goal.

Andover then gave themselves trouble by trying to play the ball out of their own penalty area but Tasker came to the rescue with a smart save from Bowerman.

At the other end, Courtnage came a long way out of his area without reaching the ball and had to be rescued by his defenders before the home side took the lead on 20 minutes.

The ball was played into the box by Billy Wright on the right, Luke Perkins collected the pass and as he went round the goalkeeper he was tripped and the referee awarded a penalty which was confidently converted by Phil Moore, low into the bottom corner.

There was no lack of effort and the game was end to end but most attacks fizzled out when they reached the penalty area.

Benham was inches too high and Liam Knight received what looked a harsh booking after an unavoidable collision with Tasker.

And with three minutes of the first half remaining, Andover’s Ben Emans was sent to the sin bin after remonstrating at play being pulled back for a free kick when his side were bearing down on goal.

Two early efforts at goal gave promise of better things in the second half, but it was not to be during the second 45 minutes.

A smart first-time effort on the turn by Benham was well held by Tasker while at the other end Josh Berti buried a shot into Courtnage’s midriff.

A poor challenge by Owen Trapnell on Steve Black went unpunished before Luke Perkins finished a determined run with a shot that was half stopped by Tasker with Trapnell on hand to clear the loose ball before an Alton forward could tap home.

Alton were then awarded a free kick just inside their own half and, noticing Tasker was out of his goal, Courtnage launched the kick forward with the right elevation but not quite the required accuracy to reward his quick thinking.

At the other end, Zach Hine was inches too high with an Andover free kick before Knight was stopped by a challenge that looked far more worthy of a penalty than the one in the first half but was surprisingly ignored by the referee.

Emans collected a yellow card, again harsh, to go with his sin binning and then sent a shot narrowly wide of the far post with Courtnage struggling.

Both sides used their full quota of substitutes as Andover searched for an equaliser, but it was the home side that came closest to adding to their score.

Perkins broke clear with the defence looking for an offside flag only to be denied by the goalkeeper’s legs and Knight fired across goal when Andover again gave the ball away rather than clearing their lines.

The one-goal margin was fair in a game played in good spirit. Alton remain in the top five in the table, who are covered by just one point.

Alton head to New Milton Town on Saturday in Wessex League Division One.

Alton Town: Courtnage, Wright, M Graham, O Graham, Moore, Evans, Black, Benham, Perkins, Bowerman, Knight. Subs: Davis, Grindel, Green.