ANDOVER Town are celebrating promotion to the Southern League.

It’s been a rocky few weeks for the Sydenhams Premier leaders with Blackfield & Langley closing fast in the title race.

But reaching 96 points guarantees them a top-two finish - an excellent achievement for manager Glenn Burnett in his first full season in charge.

Andover hauled themselves over the line with a 4-3 home win over Fareham Town on Saturday, but it wasn’t all plain sailing.

Having surged 3-0 up, they were pegged back to 3-2 by the interval.

Manny Soetan opened the scoring with a 16th-minute penalty and, it was from his solo run and pass that Fareham’s Hayato Yokata’s mis-hit clearance presented Zach Glasspool with goal number two.

Mike Gosney calmly lobbed goalkeeper Luke Douglas for 3-0 but, from a position of strength, Andover conceded twice before half-time as Matt Andrews and Brad Silvester pulled the visitors back into the game.

Micky Hubbard calmed home nerves by converting Reece Rusher’s cross to make it 4-2 with ten minutes remaining. Yet still Andover had to sweat for the points as Andrews hit straight back for Fareham from an acute angle.