Moneyfields teenager Bailey Neil set to benefit after goalkeeping rival is ruled out for months with serious knee injury

McGeorge endured a nightmare first week of the 2022/23 non-league season. Sent off after just two minutes at Horndean last Tuesday, he picked up a severe knee injury during a training session two days later.

In between, he had been handed a three-game ban by the FA for his red card, but was still going to play in Saturday’s FA Cup tie at Bemerton prior to his injury.

Moneys had signed goalkeeping coach Alex Hards on playing forms in the wake of McGeorge’s dismissal, but he couldn’t travel to Salisbury as he was boxing in a white collar event in Bristol the same afternoon.

With Tom Price yet to play since returning to the club in the summer, that meant the 17-year-old Neil, a summer recruit from Baffins Milton Rovers, was thrown into action at Moon Park.

He kept a clean sheet in Moneyfields’ 5-0 extra preliminary round tie - Callum Laycock scoring all the goals.

Neil will keep his place for Tuesday’s Hampshire Senior Cup tie at Wessex Division 1 club Millbrook in Southampton.

‘Callum has torn his meniscus,’ reported Turnbull. ‘We don’t think there’s any damage to the ligaments, but you’re looking at four to six months out. It’s not ideal.

‘But Bailey did very, very well. I’ve no qualms about keeping him in, he’s a very good keeper.

‘His distribution is great, he’s comfortable with the ball at his feet, he’s agile.’

Turnbull will ring the changes ‘not by choice’ at Millbrook. Defenders Jack Lee and Jack Chandler were both taken off at Bemerton with hamstring injuries, while Adam Cripps, Corey Heath and James Franklyn are on holiday.

In addition, Harry Sargeant ‘took an absolute battering’ at Bemerton. ‘His legs looked as if you’d rubbed pairs of boots up and down them,’ stated Turnbull.

Midfielder Callum Glen is available, though, after completing a two-match ban for his dismissal in last season’s Portsmouth Senior Cup final.

And Jordan Pile could also be handed his first run-out of the new season after being an unused sub in the FA Cup.

Turnbull is mystified at this season’s rules which allow all five subs named in a Wessex League match to play, but only three out of seven subs can appear in the FA Cup.

Moneys now face Southern League Wimborne in the FA Cup preliminary round on August 20.

Drawn at home but unable to play at their HQ until the John Jenkins Stadium development is complete, Moneys can either look for a new venue or switch the tie to Wimborne’s New Cuthbury ground.

Turnbull said: ‘I think HMS Temeraire is available, but the 4G (at Wimborne) will suit our game.

‘The lads seem to be enjoying travelling at the moment, but whether they’ll still be saying that in October I’m not sure!’

Should Moneys beat Millbrook, they will be ‘home’ to Bournemouth in the first round - meaning another switch and another trip to Dorset!