AMESBURY Town suffered a crushing 4-1 defeat at Petersfield having taken a first half lead, through Harry Beckley, but couldn’t see off a flurry of goals from Hampshire side in the second half.

On 19 minutes Amesbury had their first good attempt when a good build up saw Cameron Roach put a deft lob over to Jordan Matthews but his header was cleared off the line.

The Blues took the lead just before the half Beckley got the ball on the left and used his pace to out run another former Blues player, Max Elward, he then found he had room to fire home from close in.

The second half started similar to the first with Petersfield and they had a great chance two minutes in when Marcus Bedford received the ball in front of goal but somehow fired into the side netting.

Amesbury were still creating chances and Matthews forced Nixon to make a smart save from inside the area a minute later it started to go wrong, Dan Beckles, seemingly under no pressure, sliced the ball straight into the path of Bedford who this time made no mistake in firing home the equaliser.

Amesbury keeper Paddy Crease continued to make save after save and kept the away side in the game, and did create a few chances of their own as Luke Greenway fired an effort just over, but then Petersfield took the lead on 67 minutes, the ball came to Luke Walker inside the box on the right and he fired home.

A minute later any hopes Amesbury had of coming back with a point faded when the usually reliable Beckles hesitated to clear and the ball rolled to Harry Tremlett who fired over Creese from 20 yards.

On 75 minutes Roach put a good cross over from the left and Matthews header was saved by the diving Nixon but the final say went to Petersfield in the fifth minute of injury time, when Harry Giles slotted home a penalty.