New Milton Town 2, Alton Town 2

RELIEVED Alton finally stopped the rot after 12 consecutive defeats in all competitions when they got a creditable draw at New Milton on Saturday.

The Brewers came back from a goal down and will consider themselves unlucky not to have got all three points.

In a fairly even first half, New Milton opened the scoring on eight minutes when Charles Medway shot home after the ball was pulled back by the winger.

With the pitch being hard and bobbly which made controlling and passing the ball difficult, Alton struggled to get to grips with the game.

Charlie Osborne found Steve Black who forced a corner that came to nothing, but it allowed New Milton to break at speed and the pitch came into its own as the ball took a nasty bobble and the cross went straight behind.

Jake Carswell then forced Brewers goalkeeper Matt Petts into a save before Alton forced a chance of their own. The visitors won a corner that was taken deep, it was headed back by Scott Sanderson, and the New Milton goalkeeper could only half clear the ball to Matt Graham whose cross found Sanderson again but his header was cleared.

Another Graham free kick was also cleared before good play on the edge of the New Milton box forced home keeper James Mayo into a smart save.

At the other end, New Milton should have doubled their lead when Jack Cooper beat Dillon North but he shot over with only Petts to beat.

Good work by Sanderson and Osborne saw the latter dribble into the box, but just as he was about to shoot a New Milton defender got back with a fine goalsaving tackle.

Brewers manager Mark Corbett came on at the start of the second half, but it was New Milton who started the brighter, forcing a corner and then forcing Petts into a save.

Corbett almost made an immediate impact but his cross was somehow turned over the bar by Osborne.

Alton then thought they had equalised as Matt Jackson played the ball into the box. Corbett got to the ball before the goalkeeper and found Gavin Muir who controlled and fired home, only for the referee to deem that Corbett had fouled the keeper.

The setback merely spurred Alton on and the equaliser wasn’t long coming as Muir ran at his full back and was unceremoniously dumped to the ground in the area. Graham stepped up and saw his penalty saved but he was able to fire home the rebound.

Alton then sensed a winner as first Osborne had a shot blocked and then Muir forced the keeper to concede a corner, and Graham’s corner was duly headed home by George Spiers to give Alton a deserved lead.

Corbett had a fine chance to increase Alton’s lead after being put through by Jackson but he shot over when well placed and Graham had a free kick which was only half cleared but he sent his rebound high and wide.

With playing moving from end to end, New Milton forced Petts into a flying save before Corbett chased down a ball back to the goalkeeper and the ball bounced off him but rolled agonisingly wide.

And then Alton’s soft centre came back to haunt them as they allowed Radford to run in from the left wing and his pass found Carswell whose shot from the edge of the area beat Petts for the equaliser and Alton had to settle for their first point of 2019.

On Saturday, Alton Town host table-topping Amesbury Town at The Enclosure (kick-off 3pm).

Alton Town: Petts, Knight, Graham, Spiers, Black, North, Osborne, Muir, Chandler, Jackson, Sanderson.