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City began their pre-season friendly campaign with a comfortable 5-1 victory over Jewson Wessex League champions Andover. The star of the show was Sam Allison as, after entering the action as a second half substitute, he grabbed four goals. In what was a fairly low-key game, the visitors appeared to have only brought 11 players, City manager Alan Pridham gave a run-out to 18 of his squad, including Australian trialist Clinton Green. Understandably, the early exchanges saw both sides attempt to get some sort of pattern in their play but it was City who settled first and just after the half hour they took the lead, James Zabek's shot deflecting past Andover's stranded keeper. The other notable event of the first period saw referee Ed Martin leave the action with a leg injury, forcing spectator Richard Sobers to run the line for the remainder of the game. Shortly after the interval the regular substitutions began but, unlike normal, this didn't seem to affect City's play too much, as they began to dominate the game and it became the Allison show. His first strike came when he turned in Jamie Gosling's low cross from close-range before number two arrived in a similar fashion, taking the ball of Green's toe when he looked poised to score. The Australian did have the ball in the net shortly afterwards but his joy was short-lived as the stand-in linesmans flag ruled the goal out. However, City didn't have to wait long for their fourth goal as Allison ran clear of the tiring Andover back-line before lifting the ball past the keeper. The 20-year striker then left the best to last firing an unstoppable shot home for his fourth and City's fifth with a couple of minutes remaining. There was still time for the Hampshire side to grab a consolation goal in stoppage time, much to City keeper Mark Hervin's annoyance, but all-in-all it was a ideal start to the summer for City, and Sam Allison in particular. |
