FAREHAM II 2, ALTON 1

ALTON Ladies gave Fareham, the unbeaten Hampshire Division Two leaders, a tough match and can take pride in their performance.

The visitors were the stronger team at first and pushed Fareham back into their own half with bold attacking play. But the home side soon settled and denied Alton with some impressive tackling in defence.

As the possession evened out, Fareham won a succession of short corners and one shot was deflected into the net by a brave, but unlucky defender.

However, Alton took the setback in their stride and continued to spread the ball around nicely in midfield. It remained 1-0 at half-time, with Alton right in contention.

They again began brightly in the second half and equalised within minutes from a short corner of their own. It was cleverly worked between Jenny Rust and Kat Gilbert and Rust’s final strike made her the current top goal scorer in the division.

Clearly shaken by this goal, Fareham came back hard and forced another flurry of short corners. Alton defended them well, but eventually conceded a goal from open play, an unmarked forward scoring with a clean deflection on the back post.

There followed some jostling play in midfield and several injuries as Fareham clung on to their slender lead.