MATCH REPORT- Gosport Borough 1-3 Gloucester CITY

Gloucester City extended their unbeaten run to 10 games after comfortably dispastching Gosport Borough at The AEI Stadium.

Kieran Phillips nearly gave City the lead after just five minutes but he dragged wide a strike that would have gave the away side the perfect start.

The opener arrived only two minutes later with Elis Watts bagging his second goal in two games after great trickery down the right wing.

He faked and dummied Boro's defender Louis Walsh onto his left and right before shifting to unleash a powerful strike into the top right corner that Adam Parkes in net could do nothing to keep out.

Watts would be involved in what would give City a two goal advantage mid way through the first half.

After going on another one of his mazy runs he was doubled up by Harrison Bunga and captain Charlie Wassmer and after darting into the 18-yard-box he was fouled by Wassmer who was duly booked for protesting the decision.

Brandon Smalley tucked the penalty away into the bottom left corner and while the Gosport keeper Parkes guessed the right way, Smalley's strike was powerful enough to give the away side some breathing space for his 10th goal of a productive campaign.

At the half time whistle City were two goals to the good, although they had to deal with a blow to in form versatile defender Dan Ball who had to be subbed off after being unable to shake off a nasty tackle by a Borough player.

The hosts came out in the second half with more verve after making a double substituion which saw Finlay Walsh-Smith and Dan Wooden came on.

Gosport had a few fleeting strikes on goal which were not enough to trouble Luke Bell after failng to hit the target in the first half of the match.

The impressive Watts thought he had netted his brace after Harry Pinchard delivered a sublime ball to the Welsh forward but was adjudged to have been offside that would have sealed a dominating three points.

Gosport began to pile the pressure and on loan keeper Luke Bell in for his second appearance after joining last week had to make a fine stop to reduce the defecit to one.

The hosts did manage to pull a goal back right on 90 minutes after Asher Yearwood, Borough top scorer was awarded far too much space on the right wing before unleashing a strike that Bell couldn't do anything about.

This bought about a few nervous moments, that would have worried fans that had seen this story many times before.

Jadyn Crosbie who worked his socks off after being subbed on with 20 minutes to go got his just rewards after Parkes failed to judge a lofted pass by Pinchard which was chased down by the on loan Torquay striker.

Crosbie had an empty net to just run down the line and tap in from close range to put some gloss on a deserved City win which was the second away victory in three for Mike Cook's side.

Gloucester City will be hoping to win successive games for the first time since mid December when they take on Winchester City at the TigerTurf Stadium who they defeated on the road 4-2 the last time the two sides met back in October.

That victory gave City more breathing space in the playoff race as they moved 11 points clear of sixth placed Havant and Waterloovile, while remaining the same defecit behind leaders Merthyr Town.