Petersfield Town 0 Hanwell Town 1: PETERSFIELD Town had to endure another night of frustration as Hanwell’s first half penalty was enough for them to take all three points at Love Lane on Tuesday night.
The Rams looked the better side for once but they couldn’t apply the scoring touch to the chances they created and they had to play out the closing period of the match with ten men.
They felt hard done by on a number of refereeing decisions – one which saw Josh Wycherley shown a straight red card when he cut down a Hanwell attacker who was clean through on goal but when the same thing happened to Max Smith at the other end, the Hanwell defender was only shown a yellow card.
Petersfield made most of the early running and Stuart Green shot straight at keeper Lucasz Jaszorski as the Hanwell man raced off his line and then the Rams’ midfielder turned provider by setting up a chance for Matt Andrews but he missed the ball.
Home keeper Conor Beattie was then called into action when he gathered a long shot well at his near post before what proved to be the winning goal came on the half hour mark.
Zondiwe Chunga tried to tackle a Hanwell player as he burst into the box and brought him down and Dean Allan made no mistake with the spot kick by burying it into the bottom corner of the net.
The Rams could have drawn level just before half time when Max Smith and Jaszorski crashed into each other but the Petersfield youngster’s header went wide of the goal.
Hanwell almost doubled their lead a minute into the second half in bizarre circumstances. Jesee Kewley-Graham tried his luck on goal from outside the penalty area and his effort bounced off the post, hit Beattie and only just went wide when it rebounded back towards goal.
On 62 minutes Jaszorski denied Ryan Woodford with two good saves. The first chance saw the Rams skipper turn on the right hand edge of the box and fire in a shot which the keeper pushed wide. From the corner, he tipped Woodford’s header on to the crossbar and over after the ball had been crossed to the far post.
Hanwell almost stole a second goal on 74 minutes when a back header bounced up awkwardly on Beattie and he spilled the ball but he redeemed himself by blocking the shot from the unplanned rebound.
Three minutes later Petersfield went so close to equalising again when Andrews turned and shot from 20 yards out but Jaszorski showed he had strong hands to push the shot away from the target.
Wycherley was given his marching orders with ten minutes remaining and Petersfield were unable to muster as much of a threat as they had been doing on the Hanwell goal after that.
Petersfield: Beattie, Chunga (D Neal), Graham, Harvey, Wycherley, Awford, Green, Cripps (Whiteley), M Smith, Woodford, Andrews. Sub not used: A Smith.