Moneyfields to groundshare at Havant & Waterlooville for rest of 2022/23 season  - thanks to Pompey Women

By now, Moneys should have been playing at the multi-million pound John Jenkins Stadium on the site of their former Dover Road base.

During the summer, a mid-September date was always in the diary for the big stadium unveiling.

But the development has been delayed - as well as being hit by rising costs, some due to the war in Ukraine - meaning Moneys have played 22 successive away league and cup fixtures this season on the road, including 14 in the league.

Now the club have signed a groundsharing deal to play home fixtures at Havant & Waterlooville’s Westleigh Park - starting with this coming Friday’s game with Blackfield & Langley.

Due to the fact that Hampshire Premier League club Clanfield also play home games at the stadium, the majority of Moneys’ home Wessex games will be played on a Friday.

As of today, neither of the two 4G artificial surfaces have been laid at the John Jenkins Stadium, while grandstand seats have yet to be bolted into place. The clubhouse is also not yet completed.

Moneys chairman Pete Seiden hopes some of his club’s junior teams could well be playing at the John Jenkins Stadium as early as January.

But even if all facilities are available prior to the end of the current campaign, Moneys will see out the season at Westleigh Park.

Seiden told The News he didn’t want Moneys’ stadium debut to be ‘half hearted’, adding: ‘If we did it without everything being open, it’s not worth it.’

The chairman has thanked the local football community for supporting his club in their hours (well, 90 minutes plus stoppage time) of need.

Both Paul Kelly and Steve Cripps - chairmen of Moneys’ divisional rivals AFC Portchester and Baffins Milton Rovers respectively - had phoned to offer any help they could.

Fleetlands chairman Iain Sellstrom was another to offer whatever help he could, while Portsmouth Women - who will also use the John Jenkins Stadium - have shuffled their training programme around to ensure Moneys can play on a Friday night at Westleigh Park.

Other junior teams have also agreed to move their training slots to accommodate Moneys.

‘Though I want to beat Portchester and Baffins as much as they want to beat us,’ said Seiden, ‘everyone has been so helpful. It just shows how great the football community is.

‘We’ve had lots of offers of help, but we didn’t really explore them because Havant was 100 per cent the best case scenario for us.

‘It’s a good surface - we’re a good footballing side - and I think everyone likes a game under floodlights.’

Moneyfields will be tenants when the John Jenkins Stadium is completed, with Pompey in the Community owning and running the complex.

As well as Pompey Women, Moneyfields’ reserves and women will also play home games there. Pompey Women are currently playing home fixtures at Westleigh Park, while Moneys Women are using Baffins’ PMC Stadium.

‘Pompey in the Community have been really helpful,’ said Seiden. ‘I speak to Clare Martin (CEO, PITC) every day. She wants it done (stadium development) probably quicker than we do.

‘Gary Pratt (facilities manager at Hawks) has been brilliant, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how accommodating Havant have been. It’s good to build new relationships - you can never have enough friends at our level.’

‘It’s been an absolute nightmare (playing every game away this season), so this (groundshare) will take some of the pressure off.’

Seiden added: ‘The Wessex League have also been unbelievably helpful. We’ve been honest with them all along, we’ve not tried to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes.

‘They (Wessex officials) have been to the ground and they know what it’s going to be like. To have that facility in the Wessex League, everyone’s going to want to play there.’

Asked if accommodating Moneys at Westleigh Park has been a logistical headache, Pratt told The News: ‘In a word, yes.

‘You probably haven’t got enough column inches in the paper to detail all the different permutations I’ve gone through.

‘It was three weeks ago when I received a call out of the blue from Moneyfields asking what was the chance of them groundsharing. ‘Probably zero’ I replied.

‘We wouldn’t have entertained the idea if Pompey Women weren’t happy with it.

‘Because they will be sharing the John Jenkins with Moneyfields, there’s a relationship already there, and that’s why we were able to get this off the ground.

‘It’s an absolute pleasure to help a local club out, otherwise they (Moneys) would have been in dire straits.

‘We wanted to keep a local club playing, that’s the crux of all this.’

In addition to Pompey Women moving their Friday training slot - they will instead train at HMS Temeraire - an AFC Portchester girls team, a Hayling United youth side and an Emsworth Town junior squad also agreed to vacate their usual times.

Moneys, meanwhile, have 24 Wessex games left to play, of which 18 will be at Westleigh Park.

Their 5-0 weekend win against Bournemouth Poppies at the latter’s Victoria Park HQ was officially a ‘home’ game - meaning Moneys will return to the same ground again later in the season.

After Blackfield’s visit, Moneys then have three attractive PO postcode derby games at Westleigh Park - against Horndean (December 16), Portchester (December 27) and US Portsmouth (January 3).