Harvest’s superb Hampshire Premier League defensive record to come under huge threat in high profile Bank Holiday double

Keeper Jordan Camburn has kept three clean sheets so far in Harvest’s opening three Senior Division fixtures following promotion.

The former Mid-Solent League champions won 3-0 at Paulsgrove and drew 0-0 at Hayling in their opening two games.

Ex-Hayling strikers George Rough and Dan Goodsell then opened their HPL accounts for their new club in the 4-0 weekend romp at QK Southampton.

But tougher tests lie ahead, and they lie ahead next weekend.

Harvest face last season’s top two in the space of three days - home to Denmead on Saturday and away to reigning champions Colden Common on Monday.

‘If we’re chatting next week and we still haven’t conceded then you can say we have had a very good start to the season,’ remarked Harvest boss Steve Harris.

‘I don’t think that’s going to happen.

‘It will be a great to test ourselves and where we are in respect to the top two teams in the league.’

While Harvest were winning 4-0 at QK, Denmead and Common were netting 13 times - Denmead coming from 2-3 down at half-time to blitz Winchester Castle 7-3 and Common swamping Liss 6-1.

QK pipped Harvest to the Division 1 SE title last term, but have lost striker Krzysztof Krystofowicz, who netted 33 times in 23 games in 2022/23. He has stepped up to the Wessex League, scoring six times in his first four matches for Division 1 club Downton.

Without him, QK rarely threatened to breach Harvest’s defence.

Rough netted the opening two goals before Michael Granger was brought down in the area just before half-time, earning Lejay Giles-Pilgrim a red card.

Granger converted the penalty and sub Goodsell came on to complete the scoring.

‘George wasn’t in Hayling’s plans and I’m more than happy to have him,’ said Harris.

‘He’s another like Logan Vickers (who scored a hat-trick at Paulsgrove), he’s got all the attributes but just needs a bit of polishing.

‘I’m happy to take these young players and coach them into getting better.

‘George is already a good player for us, but he’s going to be a great player.

‘Dan just wanted a fresh start, something different.

‘I didn’t put pressure on him to sign, I want players to sign because they want to sign, but he could see our vision and the way we want to play. The fitter he gets, the better he will get.’

Kieran Hammond, meanwhile, scored his first Denmead goal since breaking his leg earlier this year.

Hammond and Clanfield’s Michael Viggor both suffered the same injury in the same challenge in a HPL match last February at Front Lawn.

On his second start of 22/23, Hammond helped Denmead hit back from behind against Castle at Front Lawn.

Danny Lucas (2), Ryan Chandler, Tommy Kirk-Farell and Owen Milne will also on target for a Denmead side who are virtually the same in terms of personnel as they were last term.