Bright young things to get AFC Portchester chances following several departures in recent weeks

The Royals ended a run of two successive defeats with a 1-1 home Wessex League Premier Division home draw against highly fancied Shaftesbury.

Teenager Harvey Aston once again started for Porchester while exciting under-23 players Archie Greenough, who led the line in the Royals' 4-0 Portsmouth Senior Cup defeat to Gosport Borough last midweek, along with Fin Bello and Leo King were all named on the bench against Shaftesbury.

Carter has seen AFC Totton loan pair Adam Tomasso and Ryan Pennery both return to their parent club, with Clayd Roach's brief Portchester stay coming to an end, Joe Briggs leaving for Moneyfields and George Colson deciding to take some time away from football in recent weeks.

With the Royals currently sitting 12th in the table, some 21 points off leaders Horndean, Carter conceded promotion now looks beyond his squad this term.

So he's viewing the remainder of the season and the perfect chance to blend in some of the club's brightest young prospects.

Carter said: ‘I think we’re resigned to saying promotion is probably a little bit too far beyond us now.

‘We’re going to look to promote from within, get our core, and build for next season really.

‘We want to finish as high up the league as we can, that’s the main objective this season, we need to get ourselves on a little run.

‘There were a lot of positives to take from it. Obviously we’ve lost quite a few players recently.

‘Adam Tomasso has gone back to AFC Totton, George Colson’s having a bit of a break from football.

‘Clayd (Roach) has gone to Hamble so on the back of a few defeats to get something from the game was most important.

‘We defended well, we had Conor Bailey missing through suspension, George Barker and Sam Pearce played with slight knocks. It was pleasing to get a knock but the boys worked hard for it.

‘Ryan Pennery was in the Totton squad yesterday so he’s gone back there.

‘It gives us a chance to look at a few youngsters. Archie Greenough started against Gosport on Tuesday and did very well.

‘Harvey (Aston) played well on Tuesday night and he started (against Shaftesbury) and also done well.’

Defender Sam Pearce's fine free-kick found the bottom corner to hand the hosts the lead on 21 minutes.

Shaftesbury would level before the break though, with Ash Pope firing home on 41 minutes after Portchester had failed to clear their lines from a corner.

Chances came at both ends after the restart with George Barker clipping the post with an effort 10 minutes from time as it finished all square.