AFC Portchester add prolific striker Lee Wort to their array of attacking riches

Royals boss Mick Catlin has added Lee Wort to a squad which is shaping up to be one of the strongest in recent Wessex League Premier Division history.

Wort, 29, has fired 256 first team goals for Southampton-based Sholing in 472 appearances.

He has twice won the Wessex League - in 2013/14 and 2018/19 - and has also been leading scorer in a higher division.

Catlin knows Wort well, having been Gosport Borough’s assistant manager in the summer of 2014 when Wort first left Sholing.

‘Lee is a good player and we sign good players,’ said Catlin.

‘He contacted me. I thought he was a Sholing player but obviously something’s happened and they couldn’t agree terms.

‘That’s been the story of the summer - players have contacted me, they have heard we have a good set-up and we’re open about what we are trying to achieve and what the club’s ambitions are.

‘Dan Wooden going back to Gosport was a curveball, I thought he was staying until Gosport came in. We would never stand in anyone’s way of playing in a higher division and so Dan went with our blessings.

‘I wasn’t desperate to get someone in to replace him, but Lee became available.

‘He’s played at Conference South level, he’s in his prime, and when he last played in this league he won it and scored around 50 goals. When you look at it like that it was a no-brainer.

‘I need players who know how to win games, who know how to win leagues.’

Wort certainly falls into that category.

He first won the Wessex League in 2013/14, a season where he blasted 49 goals in 48 league and cup appearances - including 36 in 39 league matches.

Only another ex-Gosport striker Warren Bentley - then at Alresford - scored more league goals than Wort that season (39).

Wort also ended the season a Wembley winner, helping Sholing lift the FA Vase in a team which included Pete Castle - now a Portchester colleague - Gosport skipper Mike Carter and Moneyfields captain Lewis Fennemore.

That was Sholing’s first season back in the Wessex after taking voluntary relegation - Wort having finished 2012/13 as the top scorer in Southern League Division 1 South & West with 33 goals.

In the summer of 2014 Wort went on trial with League 2 club Accrington, then managed by ex-Southampton striker James Beattie.

It came to nothing, though, and the striker eventually signed for Gosport.

He moved onto Poole Town two years later, but returned to Sholing in 2017.

In 2018/19, he again helped the Boatmen win the Wessex League. Dave Diaper’s side won 34 of their 38 league games and finished a staggering 31 points ahead of runners-up Horndean - the largest margin by any title-winning team in Wessex top flight history.

Wort’s personal contribution was 27 league goals in 34 outings. In all competitions, he netted 50 goals in 58 appearances and formed one of the most prolific strike partnerships in modern day non-league history with Dan Mason (64 goals in 61 appearances).

Wort left Sholing last summer to go travelling, but returned in the autumn and in his first game back struck his 250th goal for the club.

In all, he made 23 league and cup appearances in 2019/20 and scored seven goals.

Wort now takes his place in a Royals squad which also boasts an array of attacking riches.

Two other strikers - Craig Harding (22) and Jason Parish (18) - scored 40 goals between them last season.

In addition, attacking midfielders Steve Ramsey (17) and Mike Gosney (18) also know exactly where the net is.

Wort’s former Sholing colleague Alex Baldacchino provides another striking option at The Crest Finance Stadium.

Wort’s arrival is Catlin’s sixth summer signing - following on from five players who were at Alresford in 2019/20; Harding, Gosney, Liam Hibberd, Luke Dempsey and Joe Chamberlain.

Catlin is giving nothing away in how he aims to keep all those players happy as he bids to take Portchester into the Southern League for the first time in the club’s history.

‘If we are going to win the league we will need a big squad,’ he declared. ‘Now it’s up to the players - no-one is guaranteed anything. We will look at systems and personnel in pre-season and take it from there.’