Fleet Town 3 Petersfield Town 2: PETERSFIELD Town slumped to a disappointing defeat when they played Fleet Town for the second time in six days on Wednesday night.

The Rams won the bragging rights in the first game but Fleet fully deserved their victory in this Hampshire derby in Division 1 Central.

The home side took the lead after seven minutes when a throw in on the left was worked towards the middle of the pitch and a cross found Rob Carr unmarked in the middle of the penalty area and his downward header found the back of the net.

Six minutes after this Petersfield went close when a couple of balls into the box were only half cleared and it eventually fell to David Jerrard on the edge of the penalty area and his first time shot had to be turned around the post by Ryan Pryce.

Fleet almost doubled their lead on 19 minutes with a carbon copy of their opening goal. A cross into the box again found Carr unmarked but this time keeper Anthony Ender got a hand to his powerful header and turned it over the crossbar.

The home side were making most of the running and they were unfortunate to go into the half time interval drawing after the Rams netted an equaliser on 40 minutes.

Oliver Bailey burst into the box and tried to get past a couple of challenges. Josh Harfield was on the floor by this stage and he halted Bailey’s run by handling the ball. Sean Wain sent Pryce the wrong way when he smashed home his penalty.

Fleet got back in front on 54 minutes when a through ball was not picked up by the Petersfield defence and Simba Mlambo raced clear and slotted a low shot past Ender as he advanced off his line.

However, the Rams drew level again four minutes later when Joe Briggs received the ball on the right and his cross found Bailey on the penalty spot, whose flicked header beat Pryce and found its way inside the far post.

Petersfield felt let down by the officials after this when a penalty wasn’t awarded when Harfield handled Briggs’ attempted cross and they then failed to spot that the ball had crossed the line during a goalmouth scramble, with those spectators level with the play convinced the ball was well over the line.

Fleet then netted what proved to be the winner on 63 minutes when a corner from the right was curled into the penalty area and Ender blocked the first shot on the line but Ben Toye was following up and slammed the loose ball into the net from close range.

After this point the Rams didn’t really look like they could force their way back into the game for a third time and the home side ran down the clock in relative comfort to pick up the three points.