Moneyfields avoid Hampshire Senior Cup banana skin in Southampton

One of six cups he has to deal with in 2022/23, the county’s blue riband knockout tournament is behind the Wessex League Cup and the Portsmouth Senior Cup in terms of non-national tournaments.

But he was still pleased to see his side come from behind to win 4-1 at Southampton-based Millbrook in the preliminary round last night.

It was a tie switched to Test Park due to the John Jenkins Stadium development currently ongoing at Moneys’ Dover Road site.

After Mark Barker had fired the Wessex 1 club in front, goals from Tom Cain, Chad Cornwell, Josh Bailey and Callum Laycock - the latter netting his sixth in four days - set up a first round tie with Bournemouth Poppies.

‘It was ok, they are a good side,’ reported Turnbull. ‘I don’t know if they were more up for it with us being a Pompey side.

‘We were lucky, they could easily have been 2-0 up - the had a goal ruled out for offside- which would have made it interesting.

‘There was no Jack Lee, no Harry Sargeant, no Steve Hutchings - I’m not sure if that was telling that we had a little bit of a slow start.’

Level at half-time, Moneys went 2-1 up when Cornwell latched onto an ‘unbelievable’ 70-yard crossfield pass from Jordan Pile, hit from the right back area into space behind the home right-back.

‘Once we had taken the lead I never felt they would catch us,’ Turnbull declared.

Millbrook were reduced to 10 men - one was sent off for two fouls on Dec Seiden - and it was game over.

‘There was a lot of bickering in the first 40 minutes, that detracted from things - it was everybody, not just the players, it was all of us. That didn’t help.

‘It’s not a priority (Hampshire Senior Cup), I’d put the Wessex League Cup and Pompey Senior Cup ahead of it. But you don’t want to lose, whoever you’re playing. You don’t go out expecting to get beat.

‘In the Hampshire cup you’ve got Eastleigh, Pompey under-23s, Southampton under-23s. They will be fancying themselves if they play Moneyfields.

‘But if you think you’re one of the better sides in the Wessex League, you ought to be looking to reach the cup final. That stands to reason.

‘We’d like to think we’re one of the best teams in Pompey, so we’d like to go deep in the Pompey Cup as well.

‘That’s not to say we’ll throw any others away. I didn’t play Jack Lee and Harry Sargeant out of choice (at Millbrook), they were injured.’

Moneys have been drawn at home to Poppies in the next round - taking place in a fortnight’s time - but obviously can’t use their own ground. Instead, they will look to see if they can play it at US Portsmouth’s HMS Temeraire stadium.

Moneys travel to Wiltshire for the second Saturday running this weekend. After caning Bemerton 5-0 in the FA Cup, they face newly-promoted Laverstock & Ford in a Wessex Premier fixture.

Lavvy trounced Alresford 4-0 in an FA Cup extra preliminary round replay last night, setting up a tie with US Portsmouth on August 20.