‘Fantastic from start to finish’
Gale salutes Gosport’s stunning start to the new year
Manager Shaun Gale was beaming with pride as Gosport Borough produced a season's best showing to hand Southern League Premier South rivals Salisbury a New Year's Day hammering.
Forward Dan Wooden led the way with a 40-minute treble while Dulwich Hamlet loanee AJ Harris-Sealy struck on his debut and Matt Paterson rounded off the scoring as Boro thumped Steve Claridge's 10-man side 5-0 in Wiltshire.
Gale, whose side claimed a first league victory in five attempts - and only a second in nine outings - says he could not have wished for a better start to 2022.
And the Boro manager felt his men could have won by an even more convincing margin had it not been for numerous saves from former Gosport stopper Pat O'Flaherty in the home side's goal.
Gale beamed: ‘The lads were absolutely magnificent, played well and destroyed them.
‘We really put them to the sword in front of their own fans. For me, it was all about getting three points, but it was always a nice way to start the new year.
‘That’s probably one of the best performances of the season. There have been some really good performances, but that was a complete team performance.
‘To do it in someone else’s back yards is always nice, local rivals, every single man did their job and we were fantastic from start to finish.’
Gosport came racing out of the traps with Wooden netting after nine and 31 minutes to hand the visitors a 2-0 half-time advantage.
That did not provide a true reflection of the numerous chances Boro had spurned in the opening 45 minutes, though.
Wooden would then complete his hat-trick four minutes after the restart, finding the net from Mason Walsh's cutback.
Then it was the turn of sub Harris-Sealy to add a fourth with a little under 15 minutes left to play.
That came minutes after the hosts had Chikanele Elechi dismissed after picking up a second yellow card.
Frontman Paterson then rounded off the scoring on 88 minutes to make it a fivestar start to 2022 for Boro, who recalled Mike Carter and Matt Briggs to the starting XI.
Gale explained how the arrival of loan signing Harris-Sealy came with former Hawks midfielder
Bedsente Gomis leaving
Privett Park after a short stint on the south coast.
He added: ‘I managed to get that done and across the line on Friday (AJ Harris-Sealy signing). He came on and did great but our two wide players yesterday were phenomenal - Mason Walsh and Billie Busari were unplayable.
‘I thought it was an ideal opportunity, I'm going to get a couple out, and replace them with him (Harris-Sealy). ‘I've let Bedesnte Gomis go. I thank him for all his efforts but I just felt we needed to freshen and make a couple of changes so we've done that.’
It was Gosport’s joint-best win of the season, as they also beat lowly Merthyr 5-0 at Privett Park in November.
It was also the club’s best away league win since a 5-0 success at Staines towards the end of the 2018/19 campaign.
Fifth-placed Gosport host eighth-placed Walton next
Saturday.. The Casuals are top of the form table with
four wins and a draw in their last six matches.