ALTON picked up a welcome three points with a 3-0 win at home to Hythe & Dibden in the Sydenhams Wessex League Premier Division last Saturday (October 30).

Two goals in the first 16 minutes of the game settled the nerves of the home side.

Ed Dryden opened the scoring on three minutes when he headed home from Rob Carr’s right-wing corner.

This start allowed the Brewers to dominate the ball and territory and on 16 minutes they increased their lead.

Another corner from the right caused confusion in the visitors’ defence, and they were unable to clear the ball properly.

Matt Benham recycled the ball back into the danger area, where an alert Oli Page was able to steer the ball home from ten yards out.

The game then settled down and Hythe clawed their way back into the contest but were unable to threaten the home side’s goal, where debutante Joe Choularton looked confident and comfortable in his handling and distribution of the ball.

The Brewers might well have put the game out of reach before half time, but George Bowerman was unable to convert a delicious cross from Rob Carr and headed just wide.

Minutes later Liam Knight drove forward, having cut out a pass, and clipped Bowerman in over the top.

Bowerman was in a foot race with a large defender and, having muscled his way in front, the defender recovered just enough to ensure that under pressure the ball just clipped the top of the crossbar and went over.

The second half continued as the first ended, as Alton probed and pushed for the third goal that would probably end the contest.

To their credit the visitors were not going to just roll over and made the home side work for their gains.

Benham looked a threat every time he was on the ball just behind the attackers, splitting the visitors’ defence regularly throughout the match with accurate passes.

From one of these Bowerman forced a superb save from the Hythe keeper, who pushed his left-foot shot onto the woodwork and away for a corner.

The third goal came on 75 minutes. Inevitably it was Benham who threaded the ball through to Carr, who burst clear and buried his shot into the net past the oncoming keeper.