Petersfield Town slipped to a narrow 2-1 defeat at home to Horndean in the Wessex League Premier Division.

The Deans scored twice in three minutes on the way to beating Petersfield in the derby at Love Lane.

Despite George Bowerman pulling one back, the Rams couldn’t create the big chances needed to turn the game around.

The Rams started brightly and created a couple of half-chances, but were unable to find an opening goal.

Former Ram Jordan Sullivan opened the scoring for the visitors in the 31st minute. A free-kick was headed back across goal for Sullivan to charge in and head into the roof of the net.

There was more pain for the Rams three minutes later as another former Petersfield player, Marvin Orepo, doubled Horndean’s lead. Poor defensive positioning from Petersfield allowed the visitors to move the ball quickly across to Orepo, who calmly slotted his finish past Rams keeper Ollie Howley.

Bowerman pulled one back for Petersfield after 37 minutes, finishing off a scrappy passage of play. Max Bray caused problems throughout the first half, and when Horndean failed to clear his cross Bowerman showed good instincts to nip in and finish past Deans keeper Harris Osmon.

The Rams pushed for an equaliser in the second half, with Osmon tipping over a good effort from Troy Wingfield. The resulting corner was headed just wide of his own goal by Kevin Ngombi, who tried to clear it. Ngombi headed another effort off the line later on.

The visitors began to carve out their own chances as they looked for a third goal to seal the points. With two minutes to go they missed a major chance when Spencer Bosworth blazed his effort over the bar from six yards out.

By Michael Christou