Gosport Borough to appeal red cards handed to former Portsmouth pair Danny Hollands and Harvey Rew in Southern League loss at Hendon

Midfielders Danny Hollands and Harvey Rew were both sent off in the second half of a 2-0 loss at a Hendon side that had started the game bottom of the table.

By then, though, the damage had already been done with Boro ‘bullied’ in an opening 45 minutes where they conceded both goals.

Gosport have now lost nine league games, with only rock bottom North Leigh having lost more (10) among their divisional rivals.

Hollands was the first to be dismissed. After picking up a first half booking for dissent - protesting at a decision not to award Boro a free-kick for a foul on keeper Pat O’Flaherty in an incident which led up to the second goal - he was sent off after picking up a second yellow.

Rew, meanwhile, was shown a straight red for bringing down a Hendon opponent around the halfway line.

Boro boss Shaun Gale said: ‘With Danny’s second booking, he’s toed it away and their lad has run into him, it’s never a yellow card.

‘Harvey Rew has clipped their lad, but the referee has deemed it serious foul play and shown him a straight red.

‘Having seen the incidents on video, we will appeal both of the red cards.’

As it stands, Rew will be banned for two games and Hollands one - both missing next Saturday’s league trip to Beaconsfield.

Another midfielder, Harry Jewitt-White, could also be an absentee if Pompey don’t agree to extend the loan spell which runs out on Monday.

‘We’re down to the bare bones as it is,’ said Gale. ‘When things don’t go for you, they don’t go for you.

‘The game was dead and buried after the sendings off, it was just damage limitation then.’

Gale added: ‘I sound like a broken record, but we conceded two really soft goals again.

‘We were one down after five minutes … we’re not giving ourselves a chance.

‘Hendon were big and strong, quite direct - probably a typical Southern League side - and we got bullied. When you are so young that’s going to happen.’

Gosport have now banked just four points from a possible 27 and find themselves just five points above the relegation area.

That is a far cry from the position they had hoped to find themselves a third of the way through the 2022/23 campaign.

‘It’s massively frustrating,’ said Gale. ‘You spend the summer building a squad, I even forfeited going on holiday because I was chasing players … and then 12 games into the season you’re in transition and having to rebuild.

‘It’s frustrating but you have to get on with it as much as you can.

‘We need to get Matt Briggs back, we need to get Andreas Robinson back, we need to find another centre forward as I’ve only got one in Dan Wooden.’

That last comment was a reference to the fact Harvey Bradbury has followed Matt Paterson in departing Privett Park.

Paterson has joined Bognor Regis while Bradbury has signed for Boro’s Premier South rivals Dorchester Town.

Holders Gosport host Hampshire Premier League club Locks Heath on Wednesday in a Portsmouth Senior Cup tie.

Sam Magri is available to play - Hawks have again not entered the tournament - but Gale doubts whether he will feature against opponents from four tiers lower in the non-league pyramid.

‘He’s had two tough games already,’ Gale remarked. ‘He got 80 against Hendon, which was probably 10 minutes too long. Havant are doing us a favour so we don’t want to overplay him.’