After a fairly evenly matched first 5-minutes, Alton started to assert pressure. Portsmouth were struggling to find their rhythm and succumbed to the first score of the match by Alton. This spurred Portsmouth on and up to the other end. Where a string of short corners resulted in a well worked move and Portsmouth's first goal.

Toward the end of the half, Portsmouth had a man green-carded and survived an onslaught of Alton attacks to go in at the break 1-1.

The second half started much the same as the first and Portsmouth quickly succumbed to a second Alton goal. However, Portsmouth once again fought back and Alan Duffy was in the right place at the right time to push a loose pass from an Alton defender past the keeper into the goal. Back to a draw.

The next period saw Portsmouth and Alton trade attacks between each end looking for the winning goal. MoM Bryan Hodges led the Portsmouth attacks. Unfortunately, Portsmouth, with players now tiring, gave away a short corner and Alton scored a fortunate goal from a deflection.

For the last 10 minutes Portsmouth pushed to score an equaliser but could not find the rhythm to break through before the final whistle, leaving Portsmouth to lament what could have been!