Alresford Town 2 Verwood Town 3: THE RELEGATION trapdoor yawned a little wider as the Magpies let slip a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 at home to ten-man Verwood on a springlike Saturday afternoon at Arlebury Park.

An open first half brought plenty of entertainment but nothing for the statisticians to bite on; the second half certainly made up for it. As early as the fourth minute Jordan Fisk cleared Mike Weatherall in the home goal with a chip from an awkwardly bouncing ball, but the ball came back off the post into Weatherall’s arms.

At the other end, Ollie Yates fired narrowly over the bar from distance, Simon Everett volleyed Yates’ cushioned header just wide and John Howard blasted just past the post when a defensive blunder sent him racing clear.

The only surprise in the first half was that there were no goals. After the break, Alresford quickly set that to rights. On 48 minutes a weak defensive header fell for Yates to smash past Ray Stroud for his second goal in a week.

On 56 minutes John Mulhern made it 2-0, chipping over the advancing Stroud from Ben Thomson’s well-directed pass despite the best efforts of Liam Donachy to clear it off the line.

The crucial turning point came on 58 minutes. Yates appeared to be brought down from behind as he advanced on goal. But there was no whistle, Verwood broke away, and Ben Stanbrook’s tussle with Charlie Gajic was adjudged to be a foul. To make matters worse for the hosts the incident was inside the box, and Tyler Rutten made no mistake with the resulting penalty.

On 72 minutes Verwood’s Dean Evans was shown a straight red card after kicking out at Thomson, who was trying to retrieve the ball to take a free kick. That should have been the signal for the Magpies to take control and use their numerical advantage to play out time, but Verwood, with the speedy Aaron Atkinson an increasing influence, were having none of it.

Alresford were tiring, and Verwood were winning most of the midfield battles. On 82 minutes two of their substitutes conjured up an equaliser, Joe Wood peeling away from his marker to nod in at the far post from Andy Masson’s cross.

Both sides were searching for the winner, but Verwood had their tails up and now looked the most likely to break through again. They managed that on 87 minutes when Gajic finished from close range from a free kick. The Magpies had nothing left in the tank.