Boro boss Gale hails ‘heart, soul and grit’

Proud Shaun Gale saluted one of Gosport Borough's 'best performances' of the season as they battled to pick up a Southern League Premier South point at Tiverton.

Boro had to play the final halfhour or so with 10 men after Mike Carter - making his first start of the season after recovering from a long-term knee injury - was shown a straight red on 62 minutes.

Gosport were twice pegged back after efforts from Harry Kavanagh and Dan Wooden had fired them ahead on separate occasions as it finished 2-2 in mid-Devon.

But Gale, who was able to name just four substitutes which included goalkeeper Ellis Grant with injury and illness hitting his squad, hailed the 'heart, soul, grit, determination and will' his players' showed to come away with a point.

The Boro boss beamed: ‘I’d say it’s up there with our best performance of the season. It wasn’t just how we played, but with the grit and determination to see out the game.

‘Everything went against us. The pitch was horrendous, seriously horrendous.

‘To be fair, credit to both teams, we both played some really good football.

‘For us, I didn’t have a winger fit, so we changed the system. Mike Carter came into the starting line up then I had a three in midfield with Theo Lewis, Gomis (Bedsente) and Wheeler (Elliott) and they couldn’t deal with us.

‘Our full-backs, Harry Kavanagh and Harvey Rew, were excellent. They were on the front-foot, got forward well and gave us the width we needed and Harry scored from a great move. He stuck the ball in the top bins from an angle I didn’t think he could.

‘But the performance was all about heart, soul, grit, determination and the will to want to get a result.

‘I couldn’t even fill the bench but I’m not going to complain about that because the lads who played were fantastic, they’re more than capable to get results, as they showed.’

Boro took the lead 10 minutes before the break with full-back Kavanagh's thunderous strike from a tight angle finding the top corner.

But Tiverton were level just four minutes later as Lewis Morrison fired a penalty past Bert White.

Wooden put Boro back ahead five minutes after the restart before the visitors were reduced to 10 men on 62 minutes for Carter's high-foot tackle on Owen Howe.

Gosport remained resolute but Tiverton levelled for a second time, this time through Dan Hayfield, with 18 minutes still to play.

Gale was unimpressed with Carter’s red card. He moaned: ‘The biggest disappointment for me was Mike Carter’s sending off. He got a deserved yellow card for a foul, but the sending off is never a) a sending off or even a booking.

‘The lad comes from behind him, Carts’ foot is about two-and-a-half foot off the floor, the ball is behind him and the lad tries to dive and head it.

‘Ultimately, he goes down in a heap on the floor and that pressure of their players surrounding him (the referee), obviously that pressure gets him sent off.’ - LEWIS MASON