Gosport Borough boss Shaun Gale: My generous nature could have resulted in FA Cup elimination at Hamworthy

Gale was planning to put young keeper Harry Greenfield on the bench for yesterday’s first qualifying round tie at lower division Hamworthy United.

But instead he allowed Greenfield to play for Wessex Leaguers Petersfield Town after answering an SOS from Rams bosses - and former Boro players - Pat Suraci and Joe Lea.

As a result, Gosport had no sub keeper to use when Pat O’Flaherty was shown a ‘soft’ red card after 54 minutes at Hamworthy for fouling a home forward outside his 18-yard box.

Instead, striker Dan Wooden donned the gloves and kept a clean sheet in a goalless stalemate that ensures a Wednesday night replay at Privett Park.

‘Harry was going to be on the bench but I took a call from Pat (Suraci) on Friday to say Petersfield didn’t have a keeper,’ revealed Gale.

‘My generous nature could have proved very costly. It’s something that could have come back to bite me.’

As it was, Wooden was largely untroubled. But Gale will now step up a search for a new goalkeeper.

Though O’Flaherty can play in Wednesday’s replay, his suspension will start in next weekend’s Southern League clash with his former club Salisbury.

‘Sometimes you get away with it (not having a sub keeper), sometimes you don’t,’ said Gale. ‘This time we got away with it.

‘At the level we’re at, people want to play football - they don’t want to sit on the bench. And if you have two (experienced) keepers, you’ve got two salaries.’

Regarding the cup tie, Gale added: ‘We knew it was going to be difficult.

‘It’s a tight 3G surface, the surface was full of rubber crumb, it was dry and bobbly.

‘There wasn’t a great amount of football played, but it was never going to be a really good game.

‘I was proud of my lads, we played for 40 minutes with 10 men with our centre forward in goal.

‘We were resilient and strong, and our back four contained two 20-year-old full backs and an 18-year-old and a 17-year-old at centre half.’

Of O’Flaherty’s dismissal, Gale stated: ‘I could understand it to a degree, but I thought it was soft sending off. At worst, I thought it was a yellow. But you have to deal with these things as an away team in the FA Cup.’

It was the second time in six days that Gosport had been reduced to 10 men away from home and kept a clean sheet.

On Bank Holiday Monday, Pompey loanee midfielder Harry Jewitt-White had been dismissed in the 1-0 Southern League victory at Winchester City.