How dressing room joke and Starbucks were behind shock capture of prolific ex-Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Ipswich and Bristol City favourite

Now Brett Pitman has smashed through the 30-goal barrier for AFC Portchester.

The former Pompey striker bagged his fourth hat-trick of the season in Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Blackfield & Langley.

It takes his jaw-dropping tally to 32 in 24 matches since joining the Wessex League Premier Division side in July.

With 182 Football League goals to his name during spells at Pompey, Bournemouth, Ipswich, Bristol City and Bristol Rovers, the capture of the 34-year-old represents a tremendous coup for Portchester.

And boss Dave Carter has revealed how he managed it.

He told The News: ‘I heard a small rumour that Brett might be going to Poole Town, he’s down that way, so I had a quick chat with the team and joked “Somebody get me his number”.

‘Well, our player Olly Searle said he knew him, he follows him on Instagram, so I told him to get me it.

‘I’m a trier, I will ring people up. About three days later I tried the number Olly got and it didn’t ring. As you do in that situation, you think it's a duff number.

‘I left it a bit and was travelling to London for work and thought I’d try the number again, give it a go – and Brett answered.

‘I offered to meet him in Bournemouth, so we had a good chat in Starbucks in the town centre, got on really well and it fitted for him. He wanted to do his coaching and we were flexible with that.

‘We sold him the dream! Then I went back to the chairman and finance director and we had a big meeting about it.

‘I would have gone to Scotland to meet Brett. If you don’t go for it, you don’t get anything in life, I’ve always been like that.

‘Our average attendance has probably doubled to around 350, while against Fareham on January 2, we are looking at 800-900.

‘It’s good for the league too. Mickey Finch, who used to play for me and is now at Bournemouth Poppies, told me they had their best team out against us – and the same thing happened with Portland.

‘Everyone knows Brett Pitman is playing, so it’s “I want to play in the game”.’

AFC Portchester are currently eight points clear of second-placed Horndean, albeit have played a game more.

Undefeated in 18 league games, they have won 17 of them, drawing once.

Carter added: ‘Brett doesn’t like too much hype about him and, while he demands a lot from all the other players, he’s got a good squad around him to enable him to get those goals.

‘It’s not all about Brett. We’re also creating a lot of chances for him, if you’re not doing that, he’s not going to score.’