Former boss helps Baffins Milton Rovers sign Moneyfields striker Dec Seiden

Having struggled for starts in recent weeks, the striker goes straight into the Rovers squad for Tuesday’s home Wessex League game with Fareham.

Seiden has scored three times in 22 league and cup starts for Moneyfields this season, and has also made nine sub appearances.

His last three appearances were all as a late sub - in the 81st minute against Stoneham, the 86th minute against Horndean and the 85th minute against Hamble last Friday.

Rovers boss Danny Thompson thanked his PMC Stadium predecessor Shaun Wilkinson for his part in the transfer, while Moneys waived a seven days notice of approach.

‘Shaun helped me out,’ Thompson told The News. ‘He spoke to Dec over the weekend and said ‘you’d be crazy not to go to Baffins as Danny’s got a good young squad there’.

‘He just wants to play football at the end of the day, I’d be silly to turn down the chance of signing someone like Dec. He’ll be a good addition to the squad and give us a bit of a boost.’

Baffins will move into the top six if they can better Hamble’s performance at leaders Portchester on Tuesday.

SEE MORE: Honours even in ‘El Creekio’ Wessex derby between Fareham and AFC Portchester

A seventh successive home league win against Fareham would also take them to within three points of fifth-placed Moneys.

After Tuesday, though, Baffins only have two more home games left - against Shaftesbury and Horndean - with their last six matches all away.

That is to allow the builders extra time to construct the new changing rooms that should be ready for the start of the 2023/24 campaign.

Goals from Tyler Giddings, Ed Sanders and Jason Parish gave Baffins a 3-1 home win over Brockenhurst at the weekend.

‘We didn’t actually play to our full potential,’ reported Thompson. ‘The pleasing thing is that we’re winning games without playing as well as we can.’

Of Rovers’ remaining 11 Wessex games, only three - home to Horndean and away to Moneys and Portchester - are against teams currently higher than them.

If Rovers continue their fine form, they could be on course to equal the club’s highest-ever finish - fifth in 2018/19 under Steve Leigh.

Back then, Rovers claimed 58 points from 38 games - beating Fareham on Tuesday would take this season’s tally to 49 with 10 matches left.