Moneyfields tasked with trying to keep the Wessex Premier’s top goalscorer quiet

Former AFC Portchester defender Adam Cripps, right, has started the last two games for Moneyfields. Picture: Chris Moorhouse

Having already lost 2-0 at home to surprise table-toppers Brockenhurst, Moneys travel to the New Forest aiming to avoid what would be a fourth defeat in five league outings.

There they will find ex-AFC Totton striker Silvano Obeng keen to add to the 15 goals he has already struck in just 10 appearances in 2021/22.

That has put him two goals clear of Portchester’s Kieran Roberts in the race for the Wessex golden boot.

Obeng plundered trebles in league wins against Christchurch and Hythe & Dibden and, more impressively, scored twice in a 2-1 victory at AFC Portchester.

He added two more goals in Tuesday’s 3-0 win over previously unbeaten Shaftesbury that moved Brock five points clear at the top.

Obeng has carried on his form from the post-lockdown Hampshire FA-organised Supplementary Cup competition. There, he netted twice in a semi-final win against Bemerton before firing a first half hat-trick in a 4-2 final success against Ringwood.

Having rang the changes for the midweek Wessex Cup win at Blackfield, stand-in Moneys boss Fraser Quirke will revert to a more familiar-looking squad.

Skipper Steve Hutchings, Tom Price, Callum Glen and Harry Birmingham are likely to be available again, while Jordan Pile and Josh Bailey - who went off injured at Blackfield - should also be fit.

Striker Dec Seiden, though, could remain sidelined.

For his own part, ex-Gosport striker Quirke is delighted to be back in the Wessex top flight.

‘It’s an exciting league to be part of this season,’ he remarked.

‘The top eight or nine will take points off each other, I don’t think it will be as clear cut as some people thought.

‘Brock are really well organised, they have a savvy manager (Pat McManus) who has got them playing the way he wants.

‘I was shocked they beat Shaftesbury - it was a case of ‘wow!’.’

Ex-Portchester player Adam Cripps, a recent signing, has started the last two games for Moneys on the left-hand side of the three-man central defensive unit favoured by boss Glenn Turnbull.

If he continues to impress, he could find himself up against the Royals in next Saturday’s titanic FA Vase second qualifying round tie at Dover Road.