Fleetlands’ George Gregory becomes only second Hampshire Premier League Senior Division striker to reach seasonal milestone

George Gregory hit a hat-trick as Fleetlands thumped Chamberlayne Athletic 5-1.
Picture: Neil Marshall — George Gregory hit a hat-trick as Fleetlands thumped Chamberlayne Athletic 5-1. Picture: Neil Marshall

Gregory was Hayling United’s leading scorer with 13 league and cup goals when he decided to join a Humbugs exodus to Fleetlands in December.

And his weekend hat-trick at Chamberlayne took his Coptermen tally to seven, leaving only Locks Heath’s 29-goal Ryan Bath ahead of him in the goal charts.

Gregory and Alpay Ali - the latter’s 15th of the season - both scored as Fleetlands opened up an early 2-0 lead against a Chamberlayne side now in the relegation zone.

Gregory went onto complete his treble with Callum Theobald also netting in what was a seventh league victory in eight matches.

‘It was a fairly good team performance,’ summed up co-boss Chris Blakeman.

With seven games left, Fleetlands are four points behind third-placed Locks Heath with two games in hand.

They are 11 points behind leaders Denmead, with three games in hand - and the two teams meet at Front Lawn next Saturday.

Against that, though, Colden Common are just two points adrift of Fleetlands with two games in hand. Stockbridge are three behind, with a game in hand.

With Fleetlands, Denmead and Stockbridge having all applied for promotion to the Wessex League, there is added spice in who finishes highest. Clubs have to finish in the top five to stand any chance of being considered to go up.

Fleetlands’ next four games are all against the other teams in the top five - Denmead, Locks, Moneyfields and Colden Common.

‘We can’t look too far ahead,’ said Blakeman. ‘We can only focus on Denmead.’

Mark Smith, Callum Dart, Josh Watts and Dan Clasby didn’t feature in the win at Chamberlayne. But some of those regulars could be back for a second encounter with Denmead in the space of three Saturdays.