ANDOVER New Street suffered their second defeat of the season with a heavy 5-1 home battering at the hands of AFC Stoneham.

The Aldridge Vehicles-sponsored side, who fell to a 5-1 defeat in their previous fixture against Portland, were hoping to regain their league form that had seen them go top of the Wessex League Division One in August.

However, it was not a positive start for Street, who went 1-0 down after 10 minutes following a quick Stoneham counter-attack.

Stoneham increased their lead from a free-kick on 25 minutes, taking advantage of some poor defending from New Street.

The home side started to wake up shortly after the half-hour mark and scored on the 33rd minute when Liam Wilkins headed into the top corner following a cross from Harvey Redstone.

Street looked as if they would go into the break just a goal behind their opponents but Stoneham had other ideas, snatching their third just a minute before the referee blew for half time.

New Street came out well in the second half and, despite the game’s scrappy nature, they still managed to carve out several good chances.

However, they could not convert and Stoneham took full advantage, adding a debatable fourth goal which prompted strong appeals for offside from the Street bench.

Controversy then struck towards the end of the match as Stoneham were awarded an unusual penalty.

The referee stuck to his guns and awarded the spot kick, which was scored to round off the scoring at 5-1.

After the match, New Street manager Paul Reidy said: “I’m disappointed with this and last week’s performances – it has to improve.

“We have had a few away games but that is not an excuse and we have been beaten by the better team in both games.

“We have had too many individual mistakes and at this level you will get punished. But we will carry on putting things right and working hard and hopefully get back to winning ways.”

Prior to last weekend’s match, New Street suffered a 5-1 defeat to now top-of-the-table side Portland United.

A brace from Edward Bastick and goals from Ross Carmichael, Alex Godfrey and Carl Morris condemed Street to their first league defeat of the season.

However Zac Peters pulled one back for Andover to give the away fans something to celebrate.