Local derby Knight-mare

CFL sponsored Andover grounded out a 12th successive victory at the Portway in a dour but fiercely fought Boxing Day local derby with neighbouring Whitchurch that had seven bookings and a sending off.

In what was always going to be a physical contest the Andy Shore Garage backed Whitchurch side had stand-in defender Ian Knight, a former Andover player, shown the red card fives minutes into the second half following an off-the-ball incident involving Andover's Sean Dyke that was only spotted by one of the referee's assistants.

Whitchurch also had Kevin Knight, Gary Blenkarn, skipper Danny Kirk and substitute Lee Hughes cautioned and yellow cards were shown also to Andover's Lloyd Webber - his second in successive games - Andy Forbes and Vinnie Rusher but, apart from Kev Knight's retaliatory first-half tackle on Rusher, none of them really warranted a booking as it was far too cold, with an icy wind blowing throughout, the players were in more danger of suffering from hyperthermia than from anything else as Shaftsbury referee Brian Dominy, who had a poor match, never let the game flow.

Whitchurch are a strong physical side and, despite not being at their strongest due to injuries picked up in the defeat at Bemerton last Saturday and having had to cut their cloth accordingly with Jason Dinham, Stuart Vosper, Tom Clayson and Gary Stockwell all sidelined with knocks, they know how to spoil and in the first half they got in the tackles early in an attempt to stopped Andover from playing, but the Lions' quality and class eventually told in the end.

It was never pretty to watch and scoring chances were few in the opening 45 minutes. Whitchurch had two of the best early on, with Blenkarn firing narrowly over from an acute angle and then carving out an even better chance when he picked his spot from the right-hand corner of the box with a shot that looked destined for the far top corner until Keiran Drake in the Andover goal launched himself to make an outstanding one-hand save as he flipped the goal-bound effort wide for a corner.

Andover, who had to make an enforced change with Paul Anderson slotting into the back line for the injured Matt Bicknell, finally gave the home faithful something to cheer about when they broke the deadlock on 36 minutes with a goal from Dave Asker that was worth the wait. Whitchurch contributed to their own downfall with their failure to clear a free kick but Asker deserves credit for sizing up the situation immediately when the ball fell invitingly on the edge of the box and the youngster curled a beautiful chip over stranded Whitchurch 'keeper Paul Cann for the Lions' second opening goal in successive games.

The next goal was always going to be the important one for both sides and there were chances at both ends as the game finally came to life in the closing minutes of the first half.

Glen Damen was denied his first goal for the club when his goal-bound header from a corner was headed off the line by Ian Knight and shortly after the Lions had the ball in the back of the Whitchurch net again, only to have it disallowed for offside, with Rusher having got the last touch with his head when it had looked as though the first attempt from Andy Forbes would have gone in anyway. Whitchurch were also denied by the assistant referee's flag after Paul Clarkson pounced on a rebound after Drake spilled the fiercest of drives from Daniel Winterbourne but the first half ended with Andover just about deserving their narrow lead.

A minute into the second half it was all over when Forbes killed off Whitchurch with the all-important second goal when he raced clear down the left channel from Derek Simpson's perfectly played through ball, and the striker finished in clinical fashion for his 30th in all competitions this season.

There was no-way back for Whitchurch after Ian Knight got his marching orders for an alleged head-butt on Dyke four minutes later and before the Whitchurch had time to re-organise their defence the Lions had struck for the third time, with Forbes heading down a cross from the right in the box and an unmarked Rusher had time to let the ball bounce once before thumping home his 17th goal of the campaign.

The 10-man Whitchurch side had the chance of a consolation during a good spell of pressure as Andover took a breather but Drake earned his corn and his fourth successive clean sheet with an impressive double save to deny both Soper-Dyer and Paul Clarkson, another ex-Lion in the Whitchurch side, in quick succession.

Andover however brought on Danny Mattingly for a tiring Asker for the last 14 minutes and Whitchurch replaced Soper-Dyer with Hughes at the same time but the Lions always looked capable of adding to their tally and it was no great surprise when Forbes once again punished some slack defending to make it 4-0 with 10 minutes left after Rusher had closed down on Cann - leaving an unmarked Mattingly to have a shot blocked by the 'keeper but Forbes made no mistake with the second rebound from the edge of the box for his second goal of the game.

Andover manager KCB said afterwards that he was always confident that the Lions would score the second goal while his Whitchurch counterpart John Mas was upset with his sides's defending - and the referee.

"You can't play Andover with 10 players and I was upset with Ian for his lack of discipline." He said. "I told the players at half time that the second goal would be the important one but we ended up giving them three of the goals and the less I say about the referee the better otherwise I could be in bother as well."

Andover (4-4-2): Drake; Freeman, Barker, Damen, Anderson; Asker, Webber, Simpson, Dyke; Forbes, Rusher. Subs: Mattingly (for Asker 76 mins), Kennedy, Adie Green (not used).

Whitchurch (5-3-2): Cann; Knight (I), Shaughnessy, Robinson, Knight (K); Blenkarn, Kirk, Winterbourne, Caswell; Soper-Dyer, Clarkson. Subs: Hughes (for Soper-Dyer 76 mins), Restell, Hack (not used).