ALRESFORD Town blew the chance to go top of the Sydenhams Premier Division tonight.

Despite taking the lead against Fareham Town through Mike McEnery, the Magpies were well beaten 4-1 at Arlebury Park, ending a red-hot sequence of ten wins and two draws from their last 12 games.

“We’ve had a bit of a run of late and got club-of-the-month for September and now we’ve lost in October,” said co-boss Danny Robinson.

“But it was fully deserved by Fareham, I’ve no qualms about that. They were better than us in every department and did to us what we’ve been doing to other teams.

“Our squad’s a bit thin at the moment, but we never hide behind injuries. We thought we had a good side out tonight.

“Compliments to Matt Parr and his Fareham team. They were very good tonight and will more than likely finish top eight.”

After Graham Lindsey had levelled for Fareham, the visitors pushed on for victory through Ash Tattersall, Pete Murphy – with a great solo effort – and Wayne Boud.

“It was a very good performance from our lads once we’d settled into it,” said Parr. “We don’t have a budget, but we keep finding new players and we got the result our performances have deserved.”

AFC Portchester stayed on the tails of the leading pack with a 4-0 home win over Lymington Town.

Man-of-the-match Joe Bye and Jamie Musselwhite gave them a 2-0 interval lead before Simon Woods struck twice in the second half.

On a high-scoring night, Bemerton blitzed Hamworthy United 4-0 and Christchurch ran out 5-4 winners at Horndean.

There was disappointment for Folland Sports who exited the Sydenhams League Cup 2-0 at home to Moneyfields.

In the Hampshire FA Senior Cup, Newport IoW went out 4-1 at Farnborough, but Bournemouth Poppies brightened a gloomy season with a 3-0 result at Stockbridge courtesy of Connor Phillips (2) and Martin Warren.