AFC Portchester boss Wallace: I’m disappointed with Wessex League derby point against Baffins Milton Rovers

AFC Portchester and Baffins Milton are both eager to follow in the footsteps of Gosport Borough (2007) and Moneyfields (2017) and win promotion to step 4 of the non-league pyramid.

Both chairmen - Paul Kelly (Portchester) and Steve Cripps (Baffins) - have made no secret of their desire to bring more Southern League football to the Portsmouth region.

Both grounds are arguably in better condition than Moneyfields’ Dover Road – until the latter’s redevelopment anyway - and off the pitch many thousands have been splashed on facilities and infrastructure.

The final piece of the jigsaw needed now is the hardest part to find - a squad good enough to win promotion from the Wessex League.

Forever easier said than done, of course.

Portchester were installed as hot pre-season title favourites in the summer, having brought in almost half of the Alresford side that topped the Premier table in 2019/20 prior to the first lockdown.

But boss Mick Catlin was unable to gel a host of new faces, and he was sacked in October after a run of four straight league and cup losses.

Baffins made their managerial change in May, relieving Steve Leigh of his role and bringing in ex-Hawks midfielder Shaun Wilkinson.

One of the reasons given for the change was to allow Leigh more time to watch his sons, Tommy and Ashton, playing for Bognor Regis.

Leigh was allowed to miss a handful of Rovers games last season to watch the Rocks.

With a large dose of irony, Wilkinson is now missing more matches than Leigh ever did after being hit with a 56-day stadium ban which also includes training sessions.

A few months ago, Portchester v Baffins could have been billed as Catlin v Wilkinson, an experienced manager full of local league nous against someone still adjusting to his first senior role.

As it was, Tuesday’s derby at The Crest Finance Stadium saw two stand-in bosses go head to head instead.

In the orange corner, Royals’ interim manager Marty Wallace.

And in the blue corner, Baffins’ assistant boss Danny Thompson.

Both have been given the task of winning games in a fiercely competitive division with squads going through a transitionary period.

Look at leaders Hamworthy, who have two ever-presents after 13 league games and five others who have started 12 of the matches.

That is the sort of consistent team selection Wallace and Thompson can only dream of, and Catlin and Wilkinson before them for that matter.

Portchester have used 30 players already in 12 league games this term - three more than Baffins have.

Wallace was forced into a variety of changes again.

Ex-Baffins keeper Cameron Scott was in goal as Brad Snelling had suffered an injury in the 4-0 home loss to Hamworthy at the weekend.

Ellis Martin - sent off against the Hammers - was unavailable (prior to his one-game ban this weekend) and another centre half, Pete Castle, was injured.

But Wallace did welcome skipper Steve Ramsey back from a wrist injury sustained at work.

Thompson only made one change, bringing Charlie Williamson into central midfield for George Burgess with James Cowen completing a three-match suspension (ahead of Josh Warren starting a similar punishment this weekend).

It seemed as if Baffins would claim their first ever league win at Portchester when Jamie White fired them into a 2-1 lead on 87 minutes.

But Craig Hardy rescued a point for the hosts with a 92nd minute leveller from a corner.

Thompson was the happier of the two bosses after his second dramatic 2-2 draw in four days - Rovers having equalised late on against Alresford at the weekend.

‘It was gutting to concede like that right at the death,’ he admitted.

‘When you score in the 87th minute you expect to hold on for the win.

‘Overall, a draw was probably the fairest result.

‘I didn’t think we were at the races in the first half.

‘We stood off them, maybe showed them a bit too much respect.

‘They were the better side in the first half, and Cal Laycock and Lee Wort will always be a threat up front.

‘But we nullified them in the second half, I thought we were the better side.

‘There wasn’t a great deal of good football played, it was a typical derby.

‘We’ll take the positives - that’s three games unbeaten now.

‘If we’d been offered a point before the game we’d have taken it.

‘A few weeks ago we might have lost that game, so we’re going in the right direction.’

Wallace said he had ‘mixed emotions’ after Hardy had prevented a sixth league defeat in 12 games - for comparison purposes, the Royals only lost seven out of 28 in 2019/20.

‘Overall, we were disappointed with a point,’ Wallace stated.

‘If we had been a bit more clinical in front of goal, we could have been three or four clear at half-time.

‘The second half was a bit more even, but I still thought we had the upper hand until we got hit by a sucker punch.

‘Baffins’ second goal was similar to Hamworthy’s goal at the weekend - we switched off.’