Hampshire Cup ends in heartbreak

We're out of the Hampshire Senior Cup after a late goal from Fareham Town. Going into this preliminary round tie against our opponents from the division above, we looked like underdogs but a spirited performance from our boys saw us go into stoppage time in the second half at 0-0.

Unfortunately a very late goal from Kieran Clark at the death saw us knocked out the cup.

We made two changes going into the game. Lewis Dumper was in for the unavailable Joe Coombes in goal and Nick Watts came in for his competitive debut after an impressive pre-season. Watts has previously played for Southern League sides Sholing and AFC Totton.

Photo by Ken Walker.

We started brightly and had the better of the first half with numerous chances that should have saw us take the lead. The second half saw Fareham grow into the game, especially after their triple substitution and they pushed for a winner.

It looked like the game was heading to penalties until Clark's late winner. Congratulations to Fareham and they now take on Alton in the first round and thank you to the 152 in attendance.

You can read The Portsmouth News' match report here.

We return to league action this weekend as we host New Milton Town at the AEC Protection Ground, 3pm kick off. It's still another week until the development side get underway.