AFC Stoneham maintain their unbeaten home record in the league by beating a resilient Fareham Town side 3-0 and stay second in the table.

After a scrappy first half, that saw Stoneham go into the break 1-0 up, thePurps showed their quality in the second and added another two to claim all three points.

An unchanged eleven for the home team had a competitive first 15 minutes against a Fareham Town side who previously beat Horndean, however neither goalkeepers were troubled during this period as both teams struggled to keep the ball.

Stoneham tried to get Lewis Nagle in behind early on, but Fareham’s full back Casey Bartlett-Scott had a great game and didn’t give him any breathing room.

The first real chance for Stoneham fell for Mat Bainbridge, but he couldn’t keep his shot down on the volley from the edge of the box, following a clearance from the defender.

The rest of the half was a scrappy affair that didn’t see much goalmouth action, until the first shot on target in the 38th minute led to the home side taking the lead.

Cade Dyer’s short corner was whipped into the box from Tommy Barnes and his ball found a man in purple at the back post, potentially with help from Scott Hills’ flick on, where it was then converted by Mat Bainbridge for his fifth goal of the season.

The quality dropped off for the remaining few minutes and the game started to get scrappy again, but Stoneham managed to go into the break 1-0 up.

HALF TIME: AFC Stoneham 1-0 Fareham Town

There were no changes from either side at the break and Stoneham had a comfortable first 15 minutes holding onto their lead as Fareham didn’t trouble Callum Lee in goal.

However, following their first chance on the Stoneham goal, the Purps counter-attacked efficiently and doubled their lead on the hour mark.

Barnes’ long throw put Duarte Martins in behind on a two versus one situation as he had Nagle in support, who he later passed the ball to and as he went around the goalkeeper, Luke Deacon brought him down and the referee pointed straight to the spot.

Mr Reliable Scott Hills stepped up to take the penalty and smashed it into the bottom right-hand corner for his 18th goal of the season, putting the Purps 2-0 up.

After substitutions for both sides, Stoneham added a third through top scorer Martins just 12 minutes later.

Substitute Jake Thomson picked the ball up on the edge of the box and flicked it through to Martins, who inevitably found the back of the net, taking his tally to 30 for the season.

Martins almost got his brace and added a fourth, however he saw his header cannon back off the crossbar following a brilliant ball in from Hills.

It was a professional end to the game from Stoneham who didn’t allow the away side a consolation goal and Callum Lee kept his clean sheet intact, his first one since returning from injury.

FULL TIME: AFC STONEHAM 3-0 FAREHAM TOWN

AFC Stoneham Starting XI: Lee; Barnes, Wan, Clarke, Dyer; Bainebridge, Welch, Orvis; Nagle, Martins, Hills

Subs: Clements, Callaghan, Ovington, Evans

Fareham Town Starting XI: Deacon; Bennett, Bartlett-Scott, Settle, Clark; Galloway, Cooper, Robbins; Smith, Breed, Underhill

Subs: Wright, Dench, Pates, Miller, Kontogeorgiou

By Freddie Dorman