Gosport Borough’s FA Trophy legend plotting US Portsmouth’s downfall in Wessex League Cup final

Tim Sills celebrates one of his two goals in the FA Trophy semi-final second leg that sent Gosport Borough to Wembley in 2014. Picture: Paul Jacobs

Tim Sills scored all three of Borough’s goals in their 3-1 aggregate win against Hawks in the two-legged FA Trophy semi-final in 2013/14.

He was on target in a 1-1 draw at Westleigh Park and struck twice in the second leg at Privett Park as Gosport became only the second Hampshire non-league club - after AFC Totton - to reach a major Wembley cup final.

Sills took on his first managerial role in October 2019 when he was appointed boss of Hamworthy United, who take on US Portsmouth in Saturday’s Wessex League Cup final.

Under Sills, the Hammers topped the Wessex Premier table this season prior to curtailment with 12 wins in 14 games.

They netted 50 times in that period, including two 4-0 wins against Baffins Milton Rovers and another 4-0 victory at AFC Portchester in December.

Hamworthy’s sole league loss in 2020/21 was a 1-0 defeat at Lymington Town, who this week were promoted to the Southern League after Christchurch turned down the chance to progress.

That win at Portchester marked the debut of Steve Devlin, a regular in the Southern League and Conference South for Poole Town for many years until a cruciate ligament injury in early 2019.

In Devlin’s subsequent four appearances he has struck two hat-tricks, including one in the recent 5-1 Wessex Cup semi-final thrashing of Bashley.

In addition to Devlin, Hamworthy have numerous other attacking threats - Cameron Munn (12 goals this season), Dan Cann (11), Matt Neale (9) and Ed Hodge (8) also started against Bashley.

This season’s finalists met in the Wessex League Cup quarter-finals in 2018/19 as well.

On that occasion lower division USP led 2-1 in Dorset - James Franklyn and Harry Potter netting - before losing 3-2.

Though the Hammers squad has totally changed, six of the USP starting XI that night could feature this weekend - Franklyn, Callum Glen, Frankie Paige, Jordan Pile, Harry Sargeant and Elliott Turnbull.

Hamworthy went on to lose to Baffins in the semis on penalties, with Rovers then beating Portland 1-0 in the final with a goal from current USP striker Tyler Moret.

Two years on, Baffins are finally about to lose their grip on the silverware ...