Fareham Town surpass half-century goal mark as they put six past Christchurch in terrible conditions

Fareham Town crashed through the 50-goal barrier for the season with another crushing victory.
Archie Willcox struck twice in Fareham Town's win over Christchurch. Picture: Keith Woodland (051220-119)Archie Willcox struck twice in Fareham Town's win over Christchurch. Picture: Keith Woodland (051220-119)
Archie Willcox struck twice in Fareham Town's win over Christchurch. Picture: Keith Woodland (051220-119)

This time it was Christchurch who were on the end of a Wessex League Premier Division thumping, with the Reds recording an emphatic 6-2 triumph in terrible conditions at Cams Alders last night.

The Dorset side are sure to be pleased to see the back of Fareham this season, as Pete Stiles' men completed the league double over them, netting an astonishing 13 goals in the process.

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Such has been Fareham's goal-laden start to the season they have now netted more than a half-century of times (53) across 13 fixtures in all competitions.

In fact, Stiles' men only need another eight goals to reach the half-century mark in the league alone having struck 42 times in their opening 10 Wessex Premier matches.

No-one has been more pleased with the goal flurry than the Fareham boss, who lauded the clinical nature his troops are displaying in front of goal this term.

Stiles said: ‘I’m really pleased because in previous seasons when we’ve played teams who are around the bottom we’ve sometimes slipped up or not even got the win.

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‘It’s the whole idea (scoring plenty of goals) because that goal difference is almost worth a whole other point at the end of the season. I’m pleased with them, we’re doing well.

‘We’re finding again and again and again, we’re having late gal flurries because we’re quite fit.

‘After an hour I made some substitutions and brought some more legs on. If you're a Christchurch player you’d been giving it everything for an hour in that rain, you’re losing, and then fresh legs are coming on.’

Incredibly, the Reds actually fell behind in the opening five minutes with Eder Batista netting before completing their rout.

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But Fareham turned things around to go in at the break leading 2-1 thanks to Archie Willcox's eighth-minute header while a Christchurch player put through his own net just before the half-hour mark.

Goal number 50 for the season arrived for the hosts with Ethan Jones slotting home a penalty on 68 minutes, then Charlie Cooper made it 4-1 11 minutes from time.

Christchurch pulled a goal back through Ryan Ashford a minute later but Willcox grabbed a second and Ryan Mackney rounded off the scoring as Fareham hit six.

But Stiles credited Christchurch for their efforts in terrible conditions. He said: ‘It was atrocious conditions to play football in. We went 1-0 down after four minutes, it was one of them games, I was a little bit worried because of the weather it can become a bit of a leveller.

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‘All credit to Christchurch, I believe they tried to get the game called off because they had players who were struggling to get fuel, they had four or five who didn’t travel.

‘They had a bit of a makeshift team but they actually battled and worked really hard which is often what you find when you’ve got your better players missing, everyone pulls their weight a little bit more.

‘They were as game as you like, they really dug in, they made it hard for us and got bodies behind the ball.’

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