The complete away performance in Alton victory

The Royals were excellent throughout and many of their followers rated this as the team’s best away performance in years.

As a team unit they were superb - their passing and movement opened up Alton enough to take a two goal lead in the first half and the way they defended after being reduced to nine men just before half time was a lesson in organisation, patience and resilience.

Collectively all of the players were excellent but Lee Wort deserves special mention. He was unplayable in the first half, such was his sensational control of almost any ball played into him making it impossible for the home defence to get it off him.

His intelligent running during the second period helped to take the pressure off his defence and on a couple of occasions almost brought further goals for the visitors.

Portchester almost broke the deadlock after only two minutes when Kieran Roberts broke clear down the right and played the ball inside to Wort, who shot low past keeper Keiron Greene but his effort bounced back off the post.

Wort returned the favour to Roberts on 11 minutes when he put the ball across the face of goal from the left for his strike partner to latch on to but Roberts’ shot from a tight angle rolled through to Greene.

Alton had their first sight of goal two minutes later when Luke Perkins found himself in space inside the box but his shot didn’t trouble keeper Steven Mowthorpe.

Portchester’s strikers were proving to be a real handful for the home defence and on 21 minutes Roberts got into the penalty area and hit a shot which was deflected and Greene had to punch the ball clear off the line under pressure from Wort.

A minute later a looping ball was played up to the edge of the six yard box to Wort. With little space to work in, his touch to control the ball was exquisite and his back heel was stopped by Greene on the line again.

The visitors finally made the break through their pressure deserved on the half hour mark when good build up play through midfield saw the ball played up into the left hand side of the penalty area to Wort. He pulled the ball back across goal and George Barker ran in to hit his shot home past a defender on the line.

Portchester only had to wait six minutes for their second goal of the night when George Colson got into space on the right hand side of the box and his ball across goal picked out Wort, who tapped home from two yards out.

Tempers flared five minutes before half time when a mass brawl saw three players given their marching orders. Perkins appeared to catch Mowthorpe late after he had cleared the ball and the Alton player and Owen Roundell had an altercation and both players were shown red cards.

Players from both sides rushed in and a melee ensued and somewhat surprisingly, despite there being several more candidates for clear red cards, only Portchester’s Jake Raine was sent off in addition to the two instigators of the incident.

Royals boss Dave Carter decided changes to ensure his side maintained their lead were needed at half time and Zak Sharp and Aaron McCreadie replaced Barker and Roberts.

While Alton created plenty of decent half chances during the second period to get themselves back into the game, they lacked the sharpness up front to take advantage of them.

On 51 minutes a corner from the left was knocked on and a home player tried to prod home on the line but Mowthorpe smothered the ball.

On 59 minutes a deep free kick from the half way line to the far post picked out Ed Dryden but he completely missed the ball with the goal open.

Six minutes later a cross from the right found Liam Knight but he couldn’t apply the touch to turn the ball past Mowthorpe and on 70 minutes a ball from the right ran to Rob Carr but his shot lacked the power to trouble the visiting keeper.

Wort went close to scoring his second goal on 74 minutes when he was sent clear of the home defence. He held off two challenges before firing off a shot which Greene partially blocked and a defender got back to hack the ball off the line.

Alton did get the ball in the net with four minutes remaining but it was ruled out for a foul on a defender in the build up and a minute later Mowthorpe spilled Matt Graham’s shot from 30 yards out and regathered it at the second attempt.

In injury time Steve Black had two chances to turn the ball home - his first effort from eight yards out was blocked by a defender and his follow up effort was saved by Mowthorpe.