Rams aiming for a promotion and cup double in eight days
Simon Carter
Petersfield Town’s bid for an unlikely Wessex League promotion and cup double takes them into the New Forest tomorrow.
The Rams booked a place in the Wessex Division 1 playoff final when they defeated Newport IoW on penalties earlier in the week.
Following a 0-0 draw on the island, Petersfield held their nerve in a shoot-out which went into sudden death.
The first 17 penalties were all converted amid rising tension levels, before Rams keeper Harry Greenfield kept out Newport’s ninth effort.
Greenfield ended as Petersfield hero for the second time in less than a month, after his shoot-out saves at higher tier Fareham Town helped his side book a Wessex League Cup final place on March 28.
Remarkably, it was the fifth time Petersfield had beaten Newport this season - a league double following Wessex League and Hampshire Senior Cup wins.
The following night, New Milton defeated Hamworthy Recreation on penalties to book a play-off final date with the Rams.
And due to the fact New Milton ended the season in a higher position - second, three places and 10 points better off than Petersfield - they will host tomorrrow’s final.
‘It’s not something we were expecting at the start of the year,’ said Joe Lea who, along with his former Gosport Borough
colleague Pat Suraci, took over as Petersfield coboss last summer.
‘But we’ve earned it, we’ve worked hard - there probably isn’t a team that trains harder than we do.’
Regarding the 0-0 stalemate at Newport, Lea said: ‘It was a really bad game, awful.
‘It was a bobbly pitch and we weren’t at our best on the ball, we defended a lot.
‘I’d say penalties was the fairest way to describe the game.
‘It was very tense (penalty shoot-out), I wouldn’t want to go through that again to be honest.’
The play-off final pits the team who scored most goals in the Wessex 1 campaign New Milton (116) - against the team that conceded the fewest (36).
‘I think it’s a genuine 5050 game, which is exactly what you want in a cup final if you’re a neutral,’ Lea remarked.
‘They will have more fans and are used to playing on their pitch, but we do feel confident playing away.
‘We won at (Division 1 champions) Andover New Street and we won at (third placed) Newport.
‘We’ll go there with confidence.’
Honours were even in the two league games between the play-off finalists this term – New Milton winning 2-1 at home in October and Petersfield winning 3-0 in mid-February’s return fixture, Alex Barsa scoring twice.
The Rams last played in the top flight of the Wessex in the 2017/18 season, when they won just four games out of 42, conceding a shocking 170 goals in the process and, unsurprisingly, finishing bottom.
New Milton, meanwhile, last played in the top flight in 2012/13.
Petersfield’s superb season ends when they face top flight Baffins Milton Rovers in the Wessex League Cup final at AFC Portchester on May 6.