AFC Portchester and Fareham Town aim to extend winning Wessex League Premier Division runs

AFC Portchester keeper Brad Snelling has kept back-to-back clean sheets in the Wessex League Premier Division. Picture: Vernon Nash

Royals manager Mick Catlin insists it is important to keep their momentum going.

'We have said from the word go that if we are going to challenge for the title we have to win our home games,' he stated.

Portchester have claimed back-to-back league victories - 2-0 at home to AFC Stoneham and 3-0 at Portland thanks to a Lee Wort treble.

'Our workmanlike performance won us the points at Portland,’ Catlin stated.

'I feel we are now defending better as a team and have kept two consecutive clean sheets.

'Hamble have made a mixed start but will still be a threat.

'Teams tend to raise their game against us and we have to be at our best.'

Centre half Pete Castle is available again, against the club he left to join the Royals last season, after missing the trip to Portland with a groin strain.

Premier Division table-toppers Fareham Town face a tricky visit to mid-table Tadley Calleva (7.45pm).

Manager Pete Stiles will be absent again as he sits out the second game of his two-match stadium ban.

The Reds made light of his absence at the weekend to win 2-0 at Amesbury Town - their fifth straight win.

Fareham have never won six league games in a row since Stiles took over midway through the 2016/17 campaign.

They had only previously won five games on the trot under him prior to this season - in February 2017, shortly after he had been appointed manager.

Back then, the likes of Jay Ripiner, Callum Laycock and Simon Woods were among the goals - as was Curt Robbins, who netted the second goal in the weekend victory at Amesbury.