Winchester City 1 - Havant and Waterlooville 3

Havant and Waterlooville came from behind to beat Winchester City 3-1, and with Tiverton Town achieving a surprise 3-1 with Basingstoke, the result pushed Winchester down one place in the table. 

This is believed to be the first league match between the teams since Havant Town merged with Waterlooville in 1998 to form the current club, although the two clubs have met three times in the Hampshire Senior Cup in the last 10 years. Prior to the merger Winchester played against Waterlooville in the Southern League in the 1971/72 season and against Havant Town in the Hampshire League in 1976/77.

Havant and Waterlooville were relegated last season from the National League South which is a league they became founder members of in 2004/05 and this is only the second season since then that they have played below this level.  This win moves them into the playoff positions and they have won 7 and lost 4 of their 17 league games and they remain in the F A Trophy having beaten Welling United in that competition last weekend.

Winchester made two changes to the starting line-up from the previous Saturday with George Britton and Dan Bartlett replacing the suspended duo of Dan Bradshaw and Jamie Barron.  The Winchester substitutes bench consisted of Danny King, Dom Panesar-Dower, Harry Nevins, Simba Mlambo and Trevor Caborn.

On a wet and windy afternoon early in proceedings Havant and Waterlooville's Keane Anderson forced a save from Luke Cairney, while at the other end, an effort from George Britton hit the top of the crossbar.  Winchester took the lead in the 38th minute when Alex Wilkie headed home a free kick from Josh McCormick.  The remainder of the first half saw both teams have a chance with Winchester's G K Hill twice putting in crosses that no one could make a decisive touch to, and also forcing a save from Ben Dudzinski in the Havant and Waterlooville goal, while and at the other end Luke Cairney made a further save from Keane Anderson, while another effort from Callum Kealy was just wide, but it was still 1-0 to Winchester at the half time interval.

Havant and Waterlooville started the second half with increased urgency and they drew level five minutes into the second half through Leon Maloney who was set up by Ryan Seager. Luke Cairney then made a string of fine saves to keep the visitors out, making one double save and also denying Ryan Seager, although it was certainly not all one-way traffic as Winchester were able to mount attacks of their own, with George Britton and Tommy Wright having efforts that were just off target. However, in the 73rd minute, Ryan Seager found himself clean through thanks to Keane Anderson's through ball and he made no mistake.  After falling behind Winchester made two substitutions and one of the substitutes, Trevor Caborn, forced a save from away goalkeeper Ben Dudzinski. Caborn and Dom Panesar-Dower had replaced Dan Bartlett and George Britton.

Five minutes after scoring his first goal Seager scored, this time from the penalty spot to consolidate their advantage with the penalty awarded for a foul.

After the third goal went in, Winchester made their third and final substitution of the afternoon with Simba Mlambo replacing Lula Chalwell. Before the end, I K Hill had an effort saved and Josh McCormick had an effort that went wide, while at the other end, Harry Sidwell came close to adding a fourth.

On Saturday Winchester City has another local Hampshire derby, this time away to Sholing.