Boss Rich Bessey left with 'bit of a sour taste' as Fleetlands end thumping win at Liss with nine-men

It looked to be the perfect afternoon in the Hampshire Premier League Senior Division for the in-form Coptermen as they hit five inside an hour.

However, Fleetlands would end the game with just nine-men as substitute Dillon North was forced off through injury before captain Tommy Woodward was shown a straight red card in what was a final 30 minutes to forget.

Bessey admitted that put a slight dampener on his side's thumping triumph as they played for the first time since November 4 following the 'non-elite' football suspension.

He is now facing up to eight weeks without North, who sustained a dislocated shoulder, while skipper Woodward is now set to serve a three-game suspension.

But Bessey did not want that to take the gloss off what had otherwise been a 'great' return to action.

‘It was a great day - before the game we’d have taken 5-1,' revealed Bessey.

‘We’ve now got a situation where we’ve got an injured where he’s out for six to eight weeks and Tommy is going to be out for the whole of December now.

‘We’ve lost two players.

‘We were buzzing for a while to be back then seeing the fixtures and actually meeting up with the lads for the first time and going into a game was great.

‘The result and three points was fantastic but after it leaves you with a bit of a sour taste with what went on in the game.’

Fleetlands could not train in the build-up to their playing return after the easing of nationwide lockdown restrictions last week.

They still came flying out of the traps, though, going 2-0 ahead inside 10 minutes thanks to efforts from leading scorer Kelvin Robinson and Sam Adams, who grabbed his first goal for the club. A frantic first 10 minutes was then complete with Brad Miles capitalising on an error to make it 2-1.

However, Luke Heard's header restored the visitors two-goal advantage at the break.

Wayne Boud then bagged his first two goals for Fleetlands in the first 15 minutes after the restart to make it comfortable.

Yet, North's new injury setback and Woodward's dismissal, along with a Liss player, would take some gloss off the final result.

Although the story was a much brighter one for substitute Jamie Wrapson whose performance 'wowed' boss Bessey.

‘We brought on Wrapson who was outstanding in the minutes that he played,' said Bessey.

‘If he had played like that for the whole game he would have probably got man of the match.

‘He was absolutely outstanding for the performance he put on.

‘He really performed and we were wowed by him - it was a really good performance.’