Newbury & Thatcham Veterans 1 Petersfield Veterans 2: A DEPLETED ten-man Petersfield side plundered the points through a fine rearguard action.
Newbury looked dangerous from the start, passing the ball around brightly and using their one-man advantage to find plenty of space. However, the away side scored first through Casabianca’s head-high tap-in following good work from Cooke-Priest and Pruden.
Petersfield then had to sit back while Newbury dominated, but the back three of Cornelius, Bott and MacIntyre worked hard and were well supported by Marshall, White and Cooke-Priest.
Although Newbury were dominant, Bott’s crashing clearances regularly found Pruden, Casabianca and Wheeler in space, but the Newbury defence held firm.
Newbury could have scored a number of goals, but good defending from Petersfield and some poor finishing meant the visitors still led at half time.
Newbury’s pressure eventually told in the second half when a run down the right byline was, for once, not cut out by a Petersfield defender and one of the unmarked attackers squeezed the ball in at the far post.
Petersfield soon regained the lead when Marshall earned a penalty corner that Bott smashed home. The visitors nearly scored again when White’s diving sweep from the left at another short corner went just wide.
Newbury continued to dominate the play until the final whistle, but Petersfield held firm to record an unlikely victory.