Will record-breaking Pitman come back to haunt Portchy?
Record-breaking Brett Pitman stands between former club AFC Portchester and a place in the Wessex League Premier Division play-off final.
Pitman struck 44 ninthtier goals for the Royals in 2022/23 after dropping down five rungs of the English football ladder after being released by Bristol Rovers.
Those goals, though, were unable to help Portchester to promotion – finishing fourth, just four points behind champions Horndean after winning 30 of their 38 league games.
Moving on to Shaftesbury, Pitman has been even more prolific and last weekend set a new Wessex Premier seasonal scoring record – his brace against Andover New Street taking his league tally to 56.
That saw Pitman beat the 55-goal record that had been set by Winchester’s Andy Forbes in a 42-game campaign in 2003/04.
Forbes scored 72 goals in all competitions that season, the final one coming in City’s FA Trophy final win over Sudbury at Birmingham’s St Andrew’s ground.
Two of Pitman’s goals this term were against Portchester, with whom he renews acquaintances tonight in the second Wessex Premier play-off semi-final in north Dorset.
Pitman scored the Rockies’ consolation in a
2-1 loss at Portchy before Christmas – Lee Wort bagging an 89th-minute winner.
The former Pompey star also headed the only goal of the return fixture last month, though Shaftesbury were indebted to keeper Shane Murphy for saving Harrison Brook’s second-half spot-kick.
Another close game is expected tonight, at a Coppice Street ground where Shaftesbury won 16 and lost just two of their 19 home league games this term.
One of those defeats was to champions Moneyfields and the other was a 5-4 loss to mid-table Andover New Street last Saturday.
Both Cameron Beard and Stuart Green, regulars in recent weeks, started on the bench – possibly with one eye on tonight’s clash.
Portchy also lost their final game of the regular league season, 3-1 at runnersup Stoneham.
Pitman beat the 55-goal record set by Winchester’s Andy Forbes in 2003/04