AFC Portchester celebrating third successive Hampshire Women’s League promotion

A first-half goal from Aimee Hall-Guy gave the Royals a 1-0 home victory over Bournemouth Sports Reserves last night.

That enabled Portchy to leapfrog Eastleigh in the Community Reserves and Shanklin into top spot by just a single point ahead of the two teams’ final league game against each other in Southampton this weekend.

But Portchester are expected to be given three points by the league due to US Portsmouth failing to raise a team against them last month.

Had they lost last night, they would have dropped to fourth as Bournemouth would have moved above them.

The Royals reformed their ladies team in 2020, after previously running it between 2015-2018.

Entering the third tier of the county league, they romped to the title, winning 17 and drawing one of their 18 games, and conceding just four goals.

In 2021/22 they won promotion again, this time after finishing runners-up to Eastleigh Reserves.

Mark Dugan has managed the Portchester women’s team throughout their existence, this season being assisted by Pete Hamilton. The pair also run Portchester Under-23s in the men’s Hampshire Combination East Division.

Asked if he was surprised at winning the top flight title, Dugan told The News: ‘Yes, absolutely.

‘We’ve had a lot of injuries, we’ve had to take four, five, six players from the development squad (in Division 5 of the county league).

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‘At one stage we had 19 players out of the 44 signed on over the two squads who were injured or pregnant.

‘I can’t praise all the girls highly enough, I’m so pleased with them - it would be wrong to single anyone out.’

Dugan’s squad will now be playing in the Southern Region League in 2023/24.

The path they are taking, therefore, mirrors that of Moneyfields - and Dugan would love to follow in their footsteps.

Moneys, who were playing the Royals in the Hampshire League in 2017/18, are now third in the National League South West Division - the fourth tier of the women’s pyramid in this country.

‘Their manager (Karl Watson) is a good friend of mine, and hats off to what he’s done,’ said Dugan. ‘Their template is what we would like to do.’

There has been a youthful feel to Portchester’s title triumph this term.

Among the teenagers who have played are goalkeeper Leona Cullen, while Hannah Walker has played every game at centre half.

A strong defence has been a feature of all three of the Royals’ promotion-winning campaigns. Since the start of the 2020/21 season, they have only conceded 25 goals in 48 league fixtures - winning 41 of those games, drawing five and losing just twice.

Their only league loss this season was 1-0 against Shanklin in early October.

In amongst the promotions, they also collected a cup double in 2021/22 - beating Bursledon in the Hampshire Women’s League Cup final and Eastleigh Reserves in the Hampshire FA Women’s Junior Cup final.