AFC Portchester’s perfect pick-me-up chance
AFC Portchester must quickly pick themselves up as they plot a Portsmouth Senior Cup second round shock against Southern League Premier South Gosport Borough tonight.
The 10-man Royals never gave up the fight, but succumbed to a 5-3 Wessex Premier defeat at rivals Moneyfields on Saturday already a seventh defeat in 18 league matches this term.
Returning to action just four days after that bitter blow, particularly given what playing more than 40 minutes a man down would have taken out of them, is hardly ideal - especially against Southern League opposition in Gosport.
But Portchester assistant boss Gav Spurway believes should manager Dave Carter - back on the touchline after serving a one-game suspension at Moneyfields - go with his strongest side they’ll be in with a good chance of reaching the Portsmouth Senior Cup quarter-finals.
Spurway said: ‘Mobs (Dave Carter) is back (for Gosport) so I’m pretty sure he’ll put a half-decent side out - depending on how they feel after Moneyfields.
‘You never know what Gosport are going to put out, it’s that time of year I think, everyone is getting a few injuries and suspensions are setting in.
‘We’ll keep going, we’re slowly improving on what we’ve got, we can’t really ask anymore of the lads - it’s just maybe a bit more quality in the final third will see us through, I think.’
Portchester had to do without the unavailable duo of captain Steve Ramsey and Zak Sharp for the Moneyfields defeat.
But Spurway revealed former Gosport man Ramsey and defender Sharp will bolster the Royals’ numbers for the cup meeting with Boro. He added: ‘We were obviously missing Rambo (Steve Ramsey) and Sharpy (Zak Sharp) (against Moneyfield), they were both away, so we were a bit short.
‘They’ll be back for Tuesday, in and around the squad, which is a good bonus for us.’
Defender Conor Bailey is available despite seeing red in the Moneyfields defeat.