Prolific Horndean striker Connor Duffin facing two-month injury lay-off

Last season’s leading Wessex League marksman suffered a knee injury in the first half of last Tuesday’s 4-1 Premier Division win at Hamble.

He was replaced by Rudi Blankson for the 3-1 weekend success at Christchurch that took Horndean up to third place.

Boss Michael Birmingham reported: ‘Duffers has a MCL injury, but we don’t know if it’s a grade one or grade two, there’s still a lot of swelling.

‘We’re looking at around eight weeks.’

Blankson was among the scorers as Horndean collected a sixth successive Premier Division win at Christchurch.

Tommy Scutt had put them into an early lead and centre half Tom Jeffes added the third before the hosts replied deep into second half stoppage time.

‘With the way they (Christchurch) set up, for damage limitation, it was important we scored first,’ said Birmingham.

‘After we scored, it was just a case of managing the game and being patient.

‘The only thing that was a dampener for me was conceding late on. The manner of the goal we conceded was not like us.

‘We were in total control for 90 minutes, Jocko (goalkeeper Cameron Scott) has hardly touched the ball with his gloves, and we’ve still conceded after having had about five attempts to get rid of the ball.

‘The lads were unhappy with it as well. They take pride in not conceding goals, so that’s good to know.’

It was only the third goal Scott had conceded in nine Wessex Premier fixtures this season - easily the best in the league and one of the best in the whole of non-league football.

In Duffin’s absence, Birmingham had to tweak Horndean’s style. ‘Duffers and Rudi are two good strikers but they are two totally different players,’ he said. ‘Duffers can hold the ball up and bring others into play, Rudi likes to use his pace and run the channels.’

Next up for Horndean are two big home games - an FA Vase tie with Bexhill next Saturday and a mouthwatering Wessex clash with table-topping AFC Portchester three days later.