Pompey fan and former Fratton Park triallist a huge threat to Gosport Borough in absence of Southern League’s top goalscorer

Portsmouth-born Will Spetch has scored four goals in two Southern League games - all headers - since being moved from defence to up front.
Picture - BOURNEMOUTH DAILY ECHO. — Portsmouth-born Will Spetch has scored four goals in two Southern League games - all headers - since being moved from defence to up front. Picture - BOURNEMOUTH DAILY ECHO.

But a Portsmouth-born defender currently playing as a makeshift striker will almost certainly pose problems as Shaun Gale takes his promotion-chasing side to Poole Town.

Ex-Boro forward Tony Lee ended the pandemic-wrecked 2020/21 non-league season on a dual registration with Havant & Waterlooville.

Returning to Poole, Lee lifted the curtain on the current campaign with an opening day brace as the Dorset club led 3-2 at Privett Park before Gosport scored twice in the closing stages.

Lee went on to hit 24 Southern League Premier South goals before suffering a snapped collarbone at Beaconsfield in mid-December.

In his top scorer’s absence, Poole boss Tommy Killick has thrown Spetch up front - and he has responded with four goals (all headers) in two games, including a New Year’s Day derby treble against Wimborne.

Spetch, 30, has form as a makeshift forward - in 2019/20 he was moved up front and scored four goals in five games prior to the pandemic bringing the non-league season to an abrupt halt.

Back in November 2013, Pompey boss Guy Whittingham revealed he was tracking Blues fan Spetch, who subsequently had a trial at Fratton Park.

The player also had trials with Bournemouth, Huddersfield and Port Vale but, when he did leave, it was to a National League South club when Sutton - then managed by current Hawks boss Paul Doswell - splashed out £6,000.

After an injury-ravaged time at Sutton, Spetch later returned to Poole on a free.

Poole were top of the Premier South when the 2020/21 season was halted in late October, never to return. Among their wins was a 1-0 home success against Gosport thanks to a stunning Lee strike.

This season, the Dolphins - managed by Killick now since 2004 when they were a Hampshire League club - are currently ninth, four places off the play-off zone. But they will move to within a point of fourth-placed Gosport in a congested promotion race if they can claim a third successive league victory.