Willett at the double as Horndean maintain superb Wessex League home record against 10-man Baffins Milton Rovers

Rovers are still searching for their first ever point at Five Heads Park after suffering a 3-0 defeat at the promotion hopefuls.

It was a fifth straight defeat at their PO postcode rivals since winning promotion to the top flight of the Wessex in 2017.

Zack Willett - the second highest scorer in the Wessex Premier - netted twice as the Deans moved to within 12 points of leaders AFC Portchester, and still with two games in hand.

Willett netted once in each half - taking his seasonal league tally to 23 - against a Baffins side reduced to 10 men before half-time when defender Ed Sanders was sent off.

Sanders will now serve a one-game suspension after handballing a shot on the line - ex-Baffins midfielder Tommy Tierney sending the resulting penalty wide.

Two more former Rovers players combined for the second goal - Rob Taw crossing for sub Rudi Blankson.

Deans boss Michael Birmingham told The News: ‘It was ok, that was it - a clean sheet and three points.

‘We played better on Saturday (in a 2-1 home win against Hythe). We weren’t as fluent as we can be, but these PO derbies are never easy.

‘I thought the ball was behind the line (in the incident where Sanders was dismissed) - I would rather have had a two-goal lead and Baffins still had 11 men on the pitch.

‘It can be hard against 10 men, you can become a bit sloppy. We did ok for 15 minutes (after half-time) but then became sloppy in and out of possession.

‘Baffins didn’t give up at all, they showed good character - you can see they want to play for their manager.’

Horndean could have taken an early lead, defender Chad Field firing over the bar from 10 yards following an inswinging corner.

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Going up the hill, Baffins striker Kelvin Robinson was brought down on the edge of the Deans penalty area. However, the resulting free-kick came back off the white wall.

The breakthrough came for the hosts when a superbly weighted long ball over the top of the Baffins defence was latched onto by Willett, who slid his shot past Hardcastle.

Horndean doubled their lead three minutes after the restart, when a beautiful build up produced some excellent one touch football - Blankson finishing off Taw’s cross with a side-foot volley.

Baffins’ 10 men refused to lay down and Robinson’s low strike was pushed around the post by keeper Cameron Scott. A few minutes later Robinson tried his luck once more from 20 yards, this time forcing Scott to tip it over the bar.

Willett went close on 80 minutes, but his shot was met at the near post by Hardcastle.

But he wasn’t to be denied for long, and the prolific striker completed the win in injury time after being set up by Ben Anderson.

Baffins boss Danny Thompson told The News: ‘The match was hard work.

‘It’s never an easy place to go, and when you have a man sent off 10 minutes before half-time it makes it even more difficult.

‘It was a penalty, but we could have had a free-kick for the foul on our keeper (Roux Hardcastle) from the corner. I’ve seen them given, I’ve seen them not given.

‘We got beat fair and square, I’ve got no arguments.’

Following Sanders’ dismissal, Thompson hooked off Brad Lethbridge at half-time and replaced him with Frankie Paige.

‘We had to sacrifice one of our front three and bring on a holding midfielder,’ explained Thompson.

‘I don’t blame Ed, it was a natural reaction.

‘We were up against a good side who have been together for five and six years some of them, we’ve only been together five or six months.

‘We had a 10-minute spell in the second half when Jocko (Scott) made some good saves. We needed one of them to go in to give us some momentum.’

Indeed, Sanders was the only player in the Baffins line-up last night that had appeared for the club on their last league visit to Five Heads Park in February 2022.