Alton avenged their defeat at home in September, when they lost by one point.

Southampton's pitch was in good condition in spite of the recent deluges, which encouraged Alton to attack the home side from the kick-off in front of a crowd which consisted mainly of away supporters. Moving the ball well out of contact they were soon prevented from scoring when they were held up over the line. Winger Ed Lowman attacked again but was brought down five metres short of the line and unfortunately the ball was knocked on by the Alton supporting player.

The sides exchanged penalties and while Southampton were unsuccessful, Simon Ford took his chance when it came.  Alton now applied pressure but attracted the referee's displeasure when in a strong potential scoring position. Lowman again attacked; this time running over fifty metres before being tackled five metres short.

Eventually, fifteen minutes into the half, Alton took a quick penalty followed by a slick pass from flanker, Luke Parratt, gave enough space for lock, Chris Gregory to run around the defence to score for the second game running. Ford converted, taking the score to 0 - 10.

Alton were in command but let themselves down when they kicked ahead on a number of occasions, when retaining the ball may have been a better choice. Five minutes before half time, Southampton were penalised for a scrummage offence. The ball was recycled quickly down the line with full back Fran Williams squeezing into the corner.

Southampton then got into Alton's half for only the second time and some good forward driving resulted in a score out on the left hand side to take the half time score to 5 - 15.

Alton's travelling support thought that the team should be able to achieve more in the second half and they were not disappointed.  Holding up in the maul meant that Alton were awarded a scrum, from which the ball was kicked deep into the home team's half. Alton won the ensuing line out but when the ball reached standoff, Stephen Johns, he slipped on the mud! This totally confused the Southampton defence and enabled Johns to wander over the line unopposed and give Ford a straight forward conversion.

Ten minutes later, Lowman made another of his trademark breaks. This time when he was finally stopped the forwards were able to recycle and freed number 8, Tom Smethurst to gallop over. Ford again helped himself to two more points.  The score was now 5 - 29.

Five minutes later, Williams collected his second try of the afternoon. This was scored following yet another Lowman break which led to a penalty which was taken quickly.

Southampton's misery was added to by the referee, when he showed a red card for a kicking offence.  Alton capitalised on this forcing their way into the corner where lock Will Ford barged his way over after yet another penalty. Ford's conversion took the final score to 5 - 41.

Referee - Kieran Allen (HRURS)

Alton have a home league game on Saturday, 23^rd January when the visitors will be Southsea Nomads. In view of the poor condition of Anstey Park it is likely that this game will be played at "The Reservation" in Bordon, with kick off scheduled for 14:15.