Amesbury Town 5 Petersfield Town 2: THE RAMS returned to action on Saturday with a trip to Amesbury Town.

Having been relegated from the Premier Division along with the Rams last season, Amesbury went into the game top of the table with just one league defeat all season.

Heavy showers shortly before kick off made for tricky conditions although, overall, the pitch held up extremely well.

The Rams won a penalty when Matt Rowland was brought down, and Will Essai calmly despatched the spot kick to give them a tenth-minute lead.

The hosts drew level in the 25th minute when Jacob Orr in the Rams goal failed to gather the ball in the slippery conditions and Jordan Matthews was on hand to slot home.

In the 43rd minute it was the hosts who went ahead with Matthews netting his second goal of the game.

Two minutes into the second half Luke Greenway scored Amesbury’s third goal with a sublime overhead kick.

In the 63rd minute the hosts were through on goal and were denied by superb last- ditch defending, but Tyler Brockway netted from the resulting corner.

The Rams kept trying and in the 86th minute Josh Sheehan fired past Paddy Creese to give them renewed hope, but any chance of a late comeback were soon dashed when the visitors failed to deal with a through ball and Robbie Owen netted a fifth for the home side.