BOURNEMOUTH Poppies yesterday took a massive stride towards Sydenhams Wessex League Premier Division safety with a 3-1 win at Andover Town.

Poppies established an 11-point cushion over the bottom two courtesy of Sam Pekun’s brace and a fourth league goal of the season for Diop Evans at the Portway.

Following a scrappy first half of few chances, Fawzi Saadi pounced on a moment of hesitation in the Andover backline to tee up the opener.

The Algerian-born utility man seemed to have wasted his chance to shoot but selflessly slid a pass across goal for Pekun to slam home at the far post.

Poppies continued to look the more dangerous of the two sides and doubled their advantage with 71 minutes on the clock when Taylor Leonard was afforded acres of space.

The visiting winger dallied on the ball but Saadi was on hand once more to drill an off-target cross-shot into the danger zone which Pekun scrambled home at the second attempt.

Diop Evans then punished another mistake by the hosts, latching on to Ryan Inskip’s short back pass to round Michael Weatherall and net the third five minutes from time.

Andover grabbed a stoppage-time consolation when Danny Urry headed home from a deep free-kick but Poppies comfortably held out to register only their third away league victory of the campaign.

Poppies manager Ken Vaughan told the Daily Echo: “We ran out of steam on Saturday but took the positives from a good performance.

"We deserved our win and it was a lovely three points. I thoroughly enjoyed the game.”

Poppies: Vaughan, Ayrton, Saadi, Burgis, Ami, Doe, Leonard, Evans, Pekun, Robinson (Dibigbo, 23), Ward. Unused subs: Molyneaux, Laurent.