Romsey Town 2 Blackfield & Langley 0 ROMSEY picked up their first win since mid-February in fine style on Tuesday night, the opening goal coming from an unexpected source, writes Greg Boughton.

When centre-back Andy Foster emigrated to Africa earlier in the season, no-one really expected to see him at the Bypass Ground again. But he popped up on Tuesday night with a sun-tan, a commanding performance in defence and the all-important opening goal against Blackfield.

The victory catapulted Romsey above their opponents in the table.

With leading scorer Simon De'ath still not fully recovered from injury, manager Trevor Holmes paired the nippy Jamie Buckley with Andy Kemp up front. But as a midfield player Kemp's natural instinct is to move deep in search of the ball, and with Buckley too often isolated up front, there were few goal chances in the first half.

Both sides looked well-drilled, and two committed defences did well to restrict chances to a minimum.

Eddie Carlin came close with a header from a Kemp cross, while Buckley had a shot blocked from a Chris Jones flick.

Buckley then tested Blackfield keeper Glen Bull with a dipping volley on the run and a close-range piledriver, but Bull punched the first shot clear and tipped the other over the bar.

Jamie Hookway had little to do in the home goal throughout the half. Foster combined well with the excellent Ross Gregory and Paul King to keep hitman Neil Williams - one of the division's deadliest strikers with 26 goals to his credit - unusually quiet.

The breakthrough came ten minutes after the break. Chris Jones fired over a corner from the right, and the Blackfield defence seemed to collectively drift off to sleep. Foster was left all alone to smash the ball home, and he took his chance with aplomb.

Blackfield were still making no inroads, and even the introduction of experienced player-coach Wayne Oakley failed to pep up their attack.

Romsey, already looking secure, put the result beyond doubt ten minutes from time. Buckley started the move with a ball down the left to young sub Tom Donaldson, who had only been on the pitch for five minutes. He showed strength, skill and composure to outpace his marker and cut in from the bye-line; his final pass to the onrushing Chris Jones was so good that a goal was virtually a formality.

There was still time for Williams to fashion Blackfield's best chance of the night with a snaking run, but team-mate Callum Tanner dragged his shot wide. Even if that had gone in it would have been too late to make much difference.