Comment – How will the six PO postcode clubs fare in what promises to be a fascinating Wessex League Premier Division season?

Certainly that is the case in the PO postcode areas where, for the first time since the league was founded in the mid-1980s, there are SIX local clubs competing against each other.

That means 10 derbies each for AFC Portchester, Baffins Milton Rovers, Fareham Town, Horndean, Moneyfields and US Portsmouth - a quarter of their total league fixtures.

Of those clubs, it is not exaggerating to say five will have high hopes of being in and around the top six. The exception is US Portsmouth, promoted into the Premier for the first time in their history as part of the FA’s close-season restructure of the lower end of the non-league pyramid.

Due to the majority of their FA Vase semi-final squad joining Glenn Turnbull at Moneyfields, they will be happy - delighted, in fact - with a mid-table finish.

Here, The News looks at the hopes and aspirations of our local Wessex Premier clubs.

AFC PORTCHESTER

Having left Moneyfields in February, Dave Carter tonight finally takes charge of a competitive Royals league game - away to Hamble Club.

Chairman Paul Kelly has for some years now made no attempt to hide his ambition of seeing Portchester become a Southern League club.

In a bid to finally realise his dream, he snapped up a manager who knows exactly what it takes to make that step up - Carter having won promotion from the Wessex with Moneys in 2016/17.

Carter, to no-one’s real surprise, has returned to his former club to sign the bulk of the squad he hopes can bag the one automatic promotion place on offer.

As a result, the Royals squad is packed with players who have been in the Southern League in recent years. Even as recently as two seasons ago George Barker and Marley Ridge, for example, were playing for step 3 club Gosport Borough.

Carter has not kept many players from the squad he inherited, but one key player who has remained is striker Lee Wort.

The manager would no doubt have loved to persuade Steve Hutchings to leave Moneyfields, but in Wort he possesses a player whose Wessex Premier goals record is on a par.

Keiron Roberts is another powerful forward who was a regular scorer in his few games for Moneys last term.

Another player who has remained from the Mick Catlin era is skipper Steve Ramsey, as Carter knows he needs an experienced spine in order to succeed at this level.

He will also know a good start to the league campaign is important - something that Mick Catlin didn’t make last season, leading to his dismissal in October - but the Royals have some mouthwatering cup ties on the horizon that cannot be taken lightly.

They start their FA Cup campaign at home to Horndean this weekend and, if both teams defeat lower tier opposition in the first qualifying round, Portchester will travel to, of all teams, Moneyfields in the second qualifying round of the FA Vase in September.

Carter has confessed he has ‘put his head on the block’ by taking on the challenge of guiding the Royals into the Southern League. Off the field, the club are ready to step up. Now many pundits will be expecting - demanding even - a realistic title challenge. The buck will stop at only one man.

Portchester and Hamworthy will start the season as the two red-hot favourites to finish top. The Hammers squad is more settled, while Carter has had to rebuild his - albeit with many players who know each other’s games well.

The Portchester squad looks strong, with experience and depth. It has proven goalscorers and players who have Southern League nous. But, then again, so does Tim Sills’ Hammers.

Hamworthy won 12 out of 14 league games last season, scoring 50 goals and conceding nine. Cameron Munn, Ed Hodge, Dan Cann and Matt Neale were all regular scorers and Sills has this summer added Max Willcock, who netted 20 goals in 34 league and cup outings for Christchurch in 2019/20.

Could the fact Portchester will have 10 derbies in 2021/22 - with all the cliches that surround them such as ‘form goes out of the window’, ‘it’s whoever wants it more’ etc - play into Hamworthy’s hands? After all, this could be a Wessex Premier title race decided by small margins and the Hammers have few Dorset derbies to match the intensity of Portchester’s PO-centric fixture list.

Time, as always, will tell - but it will be fascinating to watch it unfold.

BAFFINS MILTON ROVERS

Like Portchester, Baffins have also made no secret of the fact they see their future in the Southern League. And bearing in mind that a decade ago they were playing in the Portsmouth Saturday League, they have already been on some journey.

Shaun Wilkinson’s first season in charge was ended early by the pandemic, but even in 13 games - only three of which Rovers won - he admits his eyes had been opened sufficiently.

On their day, Rovers were capable of taking on top sides - they only lost to a last-minute penalty at Horndean and were denied victory at Portchester by a last-gasp leveller. Against that, though, they were trounced 4-0 twice by Hamworthy - indicating a large gap between where they were and where Wilkinson needed to get them.

On paper, his close-season recruitment looks good - Harry Sargeant and Oscar Johnston giving extra midfield options around the undoubted talents of James Cowan, Tommy Scutt and Callum Dark.

There is also more experience in Lee Molyneaux and striker Alex Przespolewski, both of whom can count Hawks among their former clubs.

Clubs like Portchester (Wort), Moneyfields (Hutchings), Horndean (Harry Jackson, Connor Duffin) and Fareham (Josh Benfield) possess players with proven Wessex Premier goals record.

Wilkinson will be hoping Przespolewski and Miles Everett can provide a regular source of goals, with the likes of Scutt and Dark chipping in.

I don’t expect to see Baffins challenging strongly for the title, but this could well be a season where strong foundations are laid for a real go in 2022/23.

HORNDEAN

The best performing PO postcode club in the Wessex Premier in recent years, Horndean have never finished outside the top six since Michael Birmingham took over five years ago.

In addition, Birmingham has helped the likes of Sam Smart, Tommy Leigh and Benny Read all move higher up the pyramid - in Leigh’s case to Pompey’s League 1 rivals Accrington a few weeks ago.

Birmingham has admitted ‘we’re very low key, we’re under the radar’ - and he likes it that way.

But most non-league watchers in the Portsmouth area know exactly how strong Horndean always are, and this season promises to be no different.

It will be interesting to see what kind of impact Zak Willett has at Five Heads Park.

Willett struck 23 goals in his debut season for Paulsgrove at Hampshire Premier League Senior Division level in 2020/21, and has stepped up two tiers to sign for the Deans.

He also smashed over 50 goals in the Portsmouth Sunday League for Southsea United. Though that standard is a world away from the Wessex, anyone who scores that regularly has something about them.

Birmingham, like many Wessex managers, has said whoever finishes above Portchester and Hamworthy will win the Premier title this season. No-one can realistically argue otherwise. But could Hordean - runners-up to Sholing in 2018/19 - be the best of the rest? With Birmingham’s record, few should doubt that’s a possibility.

FAREHAM TOWN

The Reds have never finished higher than fifth since joining the Wessex Premier in 1998.

Last season, though, they were threatening to better that when league action shut down in mid-December, never to return in 2020/21.

After losing their opening game at Blackfield, Fareham won eight and drew two of their next 10 matches before the season was curtailed.

Though boss Pete Stiles has since lost Archie Wilcox, Casey Bartlett-Scott and Josh Breed, he remains confident he has a squad ‘capable of beating anyone on the day’ - a boast that is hard to disagree with.

Former Southampton U23 midfielder Ben Rowthorn, ex-Blyth Spartans player Dave Parker and Hawks loanee Lawson Bright are among the new faces at Cams Alders.

Fareham have rarely struggled for goals since the start of 2019/20, with Josh Benfield scoring 19 times in the Premier Division over the two shortened campaigns, and non-league watchers now expect the club to win far more regularly than they used to.

A top six finish, allied with a good cup run, would represent a fine season for Stiles, who celebrates five years in charge next January.

MONEYFIELDS

The last time the club were in the Wessex Premier, in 2016/17, Steve Hutchings belted 24 league goals, they finished second behind Portland and won promotion to the Southern League.

Hutchings is still around and could easily score 24 - or more - Premier goals again. After all, this is the man with 140 goals in six Wessex campaigns.

But it is expecting a lot - a hell of a lot - for a newly-built squad, even with Hutchings at the apex of it, to challenge for the title in a first season back at step 5 level after taking voluntary relegation.

Many eyes will be on boss Glenn Turnbull’s former US Portsmouth regulars, to see if they can cut it at a higher level.

Though some have good Wessex Premier experience - Tom Cain, Tom Price, Harry Birmingham - others less so. Attacking midfielder James Franklyn, for instance, enjoyed a high profile during USP’s FA Vase odyssey a few months ago. But he’s never played at step 5 level.

Turnbull has said he will be ‘happy with top eight, delighted with top six’ and that appears a realistic suggestion. It is asking a lot to finish above Hamworthy and Portchester, let alone Horndean, Fareham, Stoneham and Blackfield.

However, if Moneys are tight at the back, they have youth and experience elsewhere - Rob Evans, Matt McGlinchey, Mig Dark, Franklyn - and Hutchings’ formidable presence almost guarantees goals. If the striker can avoid any suspensions or injuries, Turnbull has one of the two most influential players in the division - Hamworthy’s Steve Devlin is the other - in his team.

As always, the start will be crucial - get some early-season momentum and the manager could end up being delighted rather than happy.

US PORTSMOUTH

US boasted the best points-per-game record over two pandemic-scarred Wessex 1 seasons, winning 27 of their 38 games. In addition, they were within 10 minutes of reaching the FA Vase final last May and also reached the Wessex League Cup final for the first time, losing to Hamworthy.

Had USP kept that squad together, it would have been intriguing to see how they mixed it on a weekly basis at step 5 level - having beaten six clubs from that tier during their historic Vase run.

But that was never going to happen once boss Glenn Turnbull had accepted an offer to return to Moneyfields even before the 2020/21 season restarted after the third national lockdown in early April.

To no-one’s surprise, Turnbull sweet-talked most of his USP regulars into joining him at Dover Road. Of the starting XI in the Vase semi-final against Binfield, only Tom Jeffes, Jack Chandler and Andy Todd remain at the Victory Stadium. And two of the subs that day, Jordan Pile and Sonny Harnett-Balkwill, have also signed for Moneys.

Perhaps having 10 PO postcode derbies will benefit them, in so far as they will be the underdogs in every one of those matches. Turnbull was able to build a siege mentality among his squad that thrived on the ‘underdog’ tag; it is up to boss Tom Grice and assistant Jeffes to create a similar atmosphere. Given some of those players remain, it shouldn’t be overly difficult.

Goals could be a problem. Dec Seiden, Franklyn and Tyler Moret have all left and Todd, the only experienced forward left, leaves in October for a new Naval posting in the west country.

A lot will rest on George Root, Dan Sibley, Brodie Spencer and Luke Richards, unless Grice can bring a more experienced face in.

The manager has claimed he would be ‘ecstatic’ if US finished mid-table, and in fairness so he should be. For that to happen, good results against the teams down and around the bottom half are a must.

It would be a superb achievement to go the 2021/22 season without having to look over their shoulder. In a way, that would equal last season’s accomplishments. Beating Moneyfields twice would make it even sweeter!

In truth, so long as US avoid relegation, it would be a fine season given all the squad upheaval.