AFC Portchester top scorer Lee Wort closing in on another 40-goal Wessex League campaign

Lee Wort scored his 36th league and cup goal of the season for Portchester at Brockehurst. Picture: Stuart Martin (220421-7042)

The former Sholing ace took his 2021/22 league and cup tally to 36 with the final goal in AFC Portchester’s impressive 3-0 Premier Division win at Brockenhurst last night.

Wort has previously netted 49 league and cup goals in the 2013/14 season, when Sholing won the Premier title and FA Vase double.

In 2018/19, when Sholing again won the title, Wort struck 50 times in all competitions.

This term, 26 of his goals have come in league action - compared to his league best 36 in 2013/14 - as the Royals have strung together a fine run.

Since losing 5-3 at Moneyfields in mid-November, Portchester have won 10 of their 16 league games. The only two games they lost were both to third-placed Bashley.

Curt De Costa headed in a corner to put the Royals ahead at Brockenhurst, with Wort setting up Felipe Barcelos to double the advantage before the half-hour mark.

George Barker missed two good chances to add a third before half-time - seeing the keeper save his first shot before he hit his second against a defender standing on the line.

Wort raced onto a long kick from keeper Steve Mowthorpe to complete Portchester’s first win against one of the Premier Division’s current top six this term.

Asked if it was his side’s best display of the season, Royals boss Dave Carter said: ‘It’s up there.

‘We dominated possession, we were solid all over the pitch, we won our second balls, we played some good football.’

Defender Sam Pearce had taken a knee in the back during the previous week’s Hampshire Senior Cup semi-final loss at two divisions higher Farnborough, but came through 90 minutes.

Jake Raine, who had been nursing an ankle problem, also got an hour under his belt ahead of this Friday’s reunion with former club Moneyfields at The On-Site Group Stadium.

*In terms of league and cup goals, Wort is now level with Brockenhurst’s Silvano Obeng on 36 at the top of the Wessex Premier charts. But Horndean’s Connor Duffin, with 34, is well out in front in the race to finish as the Golden Boot winner in terms of purely scoring league goals. Duffin is five in front of his Five Heads Park colleague Zack Willett.