HIGH-riding Romsey moved up to second place in the league by virtue of their clinical finishing in a game littered with goalscoring chances at the Bypass Ground last Saturday.

Whitchurch created several opportunities in the first fifteen minutes, but then Romsey got into gear with a display that tore their visitors apart. The finishing was crisp, their movement superb and United were rattled.

The first goal came from Simon De'ath, who drilled a low free kick around the wall from 25 yards.

The second came when De'ath capitalised on defensive uncertainty to run on to Andy Kemp's pass, cut in and rifle the ball past Dave Smalley. De'ath, set up by Simon Geddes, then beat a static visiting defence easily to slot home his hat-trick.

To complete the first half rout, a 35-yarder from Greg King squeezed past the diving Smalley, but Whitchurch mustered a few counter-attacks. Chris Iddles, Ricky Attridge and Sean Maye all went close for the visitors.

In the second half the domination was reversed as a spirited Whitchurch created a number of openings. Maye, James Hemmings, Marcus Williams, Chris Wye (2), Gregor Restell and Gary Nowell all had chances to pull goals back, but their finishing wasn't up to standard.

Full credit goes to Romsey keeper Mike Hookway, who was brave in all his challenges.

With a quarter-of-an- hour remaining United finally got a goal when Ben Andrews appeared to be pushed in the back at a corner and a penalty awarded.

Chris Iddles scored from the spot, but the four-goal margin was quickly re-established when the visitors conceded a free kick and some slack marking allowed Andy Kemp to head home.

Romsey boss Trevor Holmes hasn't given up of winning the title, but knows he faces a tough task, and remains on the lookout for new faces.

Romsey look set to be without Matty Freemantle for some weeks - the big central defender sustained a broken cheekbone in a go-karting incident a couple of weeks ago.