Blu is the colour for Harvest Home as debutant Boam hits Mid-Solent League hat-trick

The former Baffins Milton Rovers star was drafted in for the Mid-Solent League trip to Wymering as Harvest boss Ray Ogilvie was minus a host of first-team regulars.

And he showed his class by starring in Harvest’s 4-1 win which extended their winning start to the league season to 12 games.

‘I knew six weeks ago we were going to be under-strength,’ said Ogilvie. ‘I signed Blu on with this game in mind.

‘I didn’t drop any of my regulars for him, though - he only played because we were so short.

‘And I won’t play him against the likes of Strawberry or Wymering if we’ve got a full strength squad.

‘Blu shouldn’t really be playing at our level, but he’ll probably play a few more games. I texted him on Monday to see how he was and he said ‘in agony!’

‘Blu’s played for me before - he was in the Co-op Dragons side that won the quadruple in the Portsmouth Sunday League a few years ago.’

Ogilvie was concerned that Wymering could be good enough to end their run of 18 straight wins in 2019/20.

‘I said to the team beforehand, if we’re going to lose any game this season I would forgive them for losing this one,’ he confessed.

‘I was praying it would be off due to the weather - but when I saw Wymering had booked a 3G pitch I silently applauded them as it was a good time to play us.’

Ogilvie added: ‘I was overwhelmed with the win. It was our best result of the season really.

‘I’ve always said that with our main 15-man squad we won’t win anything, but with the 32-man squad we’ve got signed on we could win things.

‘That might sound a lot of players, but when I was running a Sunday side I had 40 or 50 players signed on.

‘You need strength in depth if you’re going to be successful, because players aren’t going to be available all the time.

‘I say to them - family comes first, then work, then nights out, and then football.’

Laurie McIntosh and Boam traded first half goals on the 3G at Front Lawn as the teams went in at the interval level.

Boam - who has only played four times for Baffins this season - went on to complete his treble with sub Michael Granger also netting.

‘The plan was to let them have the ball in their half and on the halfway line and then engage them 35/40 yards from our goal. We hunt in twos and threes,’ explained Ogilvie.

‘Then we looked to win the ball and hit the diagonals. It was great to see the players listen and for the game plan to work.’

Harvest’s bid for five trophies continues next weekend with a Father Purcell Cup quarter-final at Meon Milton.